ChatGPT has been taking the world by storm. The idea of artificial intelligence (AI) was always thought to be the future, but its here and it is changing how things are operating and working (Marr, 2023). Launched in November 2022, “ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot built on top of OpenAI’s foundational large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 and its predecessors” and has “redefined the standards of artificial intelligence” (Marr, 2023). Therefore, ChatGPT is bringing new ways of staying connected with the community.
Fun fact, whenever I think of ChatGPT, it reminds me of the movie Wall-E (no idea why, I guess it’s the computer vibes for me). But ChatGPT is often accessed on the computer and has many uses, and the integration of ChatGPT into the library and staying connected has been huge. ChatGPT has been praised and contested that it is hard to tell whether or not it is a good thing. I see both the good and bad to it if I’m honest.
I was at a professional development training a couple months ago where they were focusing on the best ways to provide patrons their next best read. Something that I did not expect to come up was ChatGPT, but there it was. They were trying to show us ways of how to use it to provide book recommendations. Imagine a patron coming up to you asking about a book, but they are asking for similar books to a topic that you are not familiar with. Using the only historical war fiction book I know as an example, say this patrons asks you to search for historical war fictions similar to All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Doing a search in ChatGPT leads you to results and it is helpful to the patron. Of course, we can use other library resources such as Novellist to find book recommendations, but I was just shocked about a way to use ChatGPT in reference services to streamline information access.
This next example I have is something in my own life. I recently got engaged and we are starting to do some wedding planning. I was browsing some of the Reddit channels on wedding planning and I came across this post. People were using ChatGPT to help plan their weddings. I was shocked at this and wanted to try it out. I just tried put in “write me a wedding timeline that has a church ceremony at 1:00 pm and dinner starting at 6:00 pm”. The results were a great start and thought about things that I did not think about. I will say, I am not yet at this point in my wedding planning journey, but I wanted to try it out to see. This is one way that ChatGPT has made its way into the hyperlinked environments and here it is, yet again, being used as a tool.
So far, I have talked about some of the good, but here is one of the bad. There has been a lot of talk about how students have been using ChatGPT to complete assignments, as “roughly one-in-five teenagers who have heard of ChatGPT say they have used it to help them do their schoolwork” (Sidoti & Gottfried, 2023). However, students have been using ChatGPT to complete their assignments and generate full essays (Morrison, 2024). It has been founded that there are strengths and weaknesses to ChatGPT, in areas such as “information,” “reflection,” “analysis,” and “comparison,” however overall it can contribute to work that is considered to be low in academic standards (Morrison, 2024). This is where it is important to draw the line of how much ChatGPT should be used. It is important to remember that ChatGPT can cause issues as it uses statistical analysis, and there can be concerns of plagiarism and data privacy (Kent, 2023). However, ChatGPT can also help as it can create prompts that can be used as jumping points to help support and build the foundation of your work (Kent, 2023). This is where I think it is important to have stuff such as media and digital literacy classes to help support (Cox & Tzoc, 2023)
ChatGPT is useful, yet it is important that there are some boundaries in what is capable. Who knows what ChatGPT is able to accomplish in these next couple years? However, as of right now, ChatGPT is beneficial to organizations as it helps create a user-centric experience as it focuses on finding information that the community needs at that current moment. It helps build access to information, as well as foster connection and creativity (Cox & Tzoc, 2023). ChatGPT is a great tool to use in building and enhancing hyperlinked communities and in the library, however this is not to say that it is all we should use. It is always important to remember that there are some flaws that can be there. It is important to consider accuracy concerns, and the potential over-reliance of the technology (Cox & Tzoc, 2023). As well, it can be alienating for people who are affected by the digital divide (Cox & Tzoc, 2023). To be the most beneficial for hyperlinked communities and the library, the use of ChatGPT must be balanced, and balancing it alongside the human and people aspect of libraries can enhance and foster hyperlinked environments.
References
Cox, C., & Tzoc, E. (2023). ChatGPT: Implications for academic libraries. College & Research Libraries News, 84(3), 99. doi: https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.84.3.99
Kent, J. (2023, September 6). Should I use ChatGPT to write my essays?. Harvard Summer School. https://summer.harvard.edu/blog/should-i-use-chatgpt-to-write-my-essays/
Marr, B. (2023, May 19). A short history of ChatGPT: How we got where we are today. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/05/19/a-short-history-of-chatgpt-how-we-got-to-where-we-are-today/
Morrison, N. (2024, March 27). The tell-tale signs students are using ChatGPT to help write their essays. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2024/03/27/the-tell-tale-signs-students-are-using-chatgpt-to-help-write-their-essays/
[PossibleSuccess9566]. (2023). Have you used Chat GPT for any of your wedding planning?. [Online forum post]. Reddit.
Have you used Chat GPT for any of your wedding planning?
byu/PossibleSuccess9566 inweddingplanning
Sidoti, O., & Gottfried, J. (2023, November 16). About 1 in 5 U.S. teens who’ve heard of CHATGPT have used it for schoolwork. Pew Research Center.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/16/about-1-in-5-us-teens-whove-heard-of-chatgpt-have-used-it-for-schoolwork/
I enjoyed reading your usage, thoughts, and analysis on ChatGPT! I had not thought of using it for recommendations for a topic and think that this could be a great use for sure. Very interesting way to use it for wedding planning. I think you are right in that ChatGPT can be a great starting point and give new ideas but will always need that human touch. One idea that I found scary in our readings was that ChatGPT is free right now because we are all helping it learn by using it. It is scary to think about these tools charging for use and the profiteering behind them one day.
Hi Kyle,
I did not even think about how we are helping ChatGPT get better by using it. It is scary to think about how the tools are influencing how things are going and how they are being used in other ways. This is just the start of ChatGPT, and other AI platforms are making their way into the game, who knows how it’s going to be in the next couple months, years? Just thinking about all the advancement is definitely daunting.
@jemielyn Wow! I had no idea folks were using ChatGPT for wedding planning! Amazing. I appreciate your points here. This feels like one of the largest shifts we’ve seen in a long time in higher education. I agree with what you were saying that we need to use the tools in the right ways and teach everyone to use them in the right ways.
The thought of student work created entirely by AI makes me a bit angry and a bit sad!
Yes, I agree that fully AI-generated work makes me sad as well. It was definitely something I was shocked to see. I have heard from a couple teacher friends that their school boards are starting to invest in AI detectors as students are starting to rely heavily on ChatGPT. I think it brings on a lot to consider because now I have these questions of: are they relying on it because students don’t have the time to do school work because they are over-booked with extracurriculars?, or are they just taking the easy way out? It is definitely an interesting time as even more updates and new AI tools are coming into the frame.
@jemielyn I think that AI tools such as ChatGPT can be great in some given situations – like for sparking ideas or helping someone get a jump start – such as you did, with the wedding planning exercise. But I don’t like that students are using it to fully write papers, that is very disheartening. I hope there are programs put into place to be able to detect this, if it is not detectable by just reading. It’s so sad, because by doing that they are cheating the assignments and also cheating their own brains.