Reflection Blogging Hyperlinked Environments: AI and ChatGPT for the library

For this choose your own adventure module, I chose to look into AI and ChatGPT, an emerging technology that has been incredibly popular and significant. Years before ChatGPT was released to the public, every so often I would wonder what the next significant technological advancement would be? A technology that would be so impactful that it would become a necessity and completely change aspects of our personal, social, and professional lives, such as the invention of the computer or the internet. I really do believe that we are seeing the next world changing technology right now, and that it is exponentially improving as time goes by.

In this module, there are a number of questions that are asked regarding AI and its relation to the hyperlinked library model. I found this one question that made me think of the broader concept of what is happening right now that is not only applicable to AI, but also to other future advancements. The question was: how do we center intention, curiosity, and compassion for our communities in a time of rapid change? This made me think differently on how to approach new and emerging technologies. In many cases, new technologies will be demonized. It has been said that the next generation who grows up with AI will be lazier, lack critical thinking skills, and so on, but the same thing has been said in the past with the popularity of other world changing technologies like the internet (Jackson, J.H. 2023). If the integration of AI is already happening and will continue, why shouldn’t libraries be quick to understand the technology and find ways it can serve everyday people? 

I don’t think we have to look far to find past examples we can learn from and apply to help the public with these rapid changes. When we look at the integration of digital technology such as computers in public libraries, I think we can learn how these could be translated into ways we help the public understand AI, especially once AI becomes a necessity in everyday life. 

I think a good start is for us information professionals to learn and understand the technology. I know in the public library system that I currently work in, there has been a team created to assess and integrate AI into our library services. This team looks at different AI models, assesses which ones would best fit and how they can be implemented into library services. From what I’ve heard, there will also be opportunities for staff, especially staff that primarily work with emerging and digital technologies, to be trained on the AI services that will be offered to the public in the future.

Even from this module, I learned a lot of new things about AI and ChatGPT that will help me as a person who works in a public library. For example AI chatbots are typically Large Language Models (LLM) that are specifically designed to mimic how humans communicate which is great if you need to reword a sentence or want a simple question answered (Mind Matters News 2022). One of the downsides of these LLMs is that they are not always right, especially when you ask complex and open-ended questions. They may give you an answer that sounds correct and makes sense because, well, they are primarily designed to output information that sounds “right”, regardless of if it is “correct” (Mind Matters News 2022). I think this distinction is very important to know, at the very least to demystify AI as all knowing magic machines. 

In the future, I’m excited to continue to see how libraries integrate AI into their services and programming. It is exciting to see how libraries are some of the early adopters of new technologies. Keeping up with and embracing these rapid technological changes will absolutely benefit all library users.

References

Jackson, J. H. (2023, February 14). Chatting with chatgpt: Deep dive in five with Tom Moriarty. SJSU NewsCenter. https://blogs.sjsu.edu/newsroom/2023/chatting-with-chat-gpt-deep-dive-in-five-with-tom-moriarty/

Mind Matters News. (2024, October 15). Why we should not trust chatbots as sources of information. Mind Matters. https://mindmatters.ai/2022/12/why-we-should-not-trust-chatbots-as-sources-of-information/

Shah, C. (2024, June 2). The rise of AI Chat agents and the discourse with Dilettantes. Information Matters . https://informationmatters.org/2022/12/the-rise-of-ai-chat-agents-and-the-discourse-with-dilettantes/