The rise and evolution of artificial intelligence has occurred rapidly and has proposed many questions of its use in its wake. The technology evolves faster than regulation can keep up with the tech being in the public’s hands. The applications of AI are seemingly endless with creating commercial scripts in the case of Mint Mobile’s AI commercial (Beer, 2023) to helping students with research (Mairn & Rosengarten, 2023). Artificial intelligence can be very useful to get resources together, but it cannot be relied on for replacing creativity in writing or art or for trusting the answers and responses you receive to be true. AI is not a good tool for democracy given its ability to create false information in response to what users ask for.
However there can be ways to mindfully use AI as a tool instead of the entirety of a source and research itself. As guided by librarians, AI can be useful- but not a replacement for the task of finding the right answer. From “ChatGPT: A Library Perspective” (Papini, 2023) the process of searching, information creation, and valuing and understanding information is something that AI does not have authority on, and is something that users must go to lengths to understand to be familiar with the information. Since AI is a language learning model, it generates its responses based on aggregated information that is available. It relays the information to you in a way that makes it easy to understand, but it is only sending information and not verifying what it generates. For that reason, users of AI must always go the extra mile to take information from AI with a grain of salt to avoid issues further down the line.
Beer, J. (2023, January 10). Ryan Reynolds used ChatGPT to make a Mint Mobile ad, and the results were ‘mildly terrifying’. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90833253/ryan-reynolds-used-chatgpt-to-make-a-mint-mobile-ad-and-the-results-were-mildly-terrifying
Mairn, C., & Rosengarten, S. (2023). Helping students navigate research with AI tools. Computers in Libraries, 43(7).
Papini, A. (2023, January 27). Chat GPT: A library perspective. Bryant University. https://library.bryant.edu/chatgpt-library-perspective
Hi Crystal,
I couldn’t agree with you more. AI continues to overwhelm me and I recognize how it can be an amazing tool. It’s a great starting point when you can’t seem to get the words out for what you want to write and/or say. Yet, it’s important for us to be so mindful that it should never replace our thoughts, words, and creativity. It’s innovative, but definitely important to proceed with caution.
@crystallee Double edged sword indeed! This is truly the next huge shift in our profession if not the world. You point out some very helpful ideas for navigating artificial intelligence. What is so interesting to me is how smart it has become over the last two years since some of those articles have been published. It’s like a science fiction movie has come to life.