Reflection on Hyperlinked Environments

How does AI fit into the participatory model? How is AI currently showing up in libraries? Exploring the use of AI in libraries can help us make decisions as to whether or not– or– to what degree librarians should be incorporating it in their service model. Pew Research Center’s report on Public awareness if artificial intelligence in everyday activities (Kennedy, 2023) is where I started. This article provides statistics on Americans’ awareness of the use of AI and also provides some insight into how Americans are using AI and how they feel about it. 

“…[O]nly three-in-ten U.S. adults are able to correctly identify all six uses of AI asked about in the survey, underscoring the developing nature of public understanding.”  (Kennedy, 2023)

From this survey, it was apparent that AI literacy, or awareness, is not being mastered by a majority of Americans. This is problematic because AI is a tool that can be used for nefarious purposes. It is important that people be able to identify the use of AI in order to determine when it is being used appropriately or misused. This was alarming to me, but I definitely understood why. I personally only know what I know about AI from readings and projects I have performed throughout my MLIS program or through what my colleagues, who are MLIS professionals, have shared with me. Which makes sense as this report also revealed that people with higher levels of education are more likely to be able to identify when AI is being used. It should be noted that income was also tied to education. This revealed to me that AI literacy can be seen as an access issue. Could librarians and libraries lead the way towards AI literacy? 

“Among Americans who say they are on the internet “almost constantly,” 38% got all six questions correct, as did 31% of those who say they use the internet several times a day. By comparison, just 6% of infrequent internet users (those who go online about once a day or less) correctly answered all six questions on the survey.”

Although there are a myriad of reasons why a person may not be a frequent internet user, I’m curious to know if access is one of those reasons. This is something that I would like to explore in more detail, perhaps for another blog. Has AI reached a point, much like with the internet, that it is a necessary utility? I cannot say for certain that it is currently at that point, but I feel as though it will arrive there. 

 

“On balance, a greater share of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about the increased use of artificial intelligence in daily life (38%) than say they are more excited than concerned (15%).”

I am interested in how public libraries are utilizing AI. I had a difficult time locating articles that featured AI and public libraries, but it was easy to find the use of AI in academic libraries. This is an anecdotal example, but it supports the findings that were mentioned above; there is a direct correlation between AI literacy and education. AI appears to be used by librarians and library administrators to use as a tool to make assessments and analysis much easier. AI is here to stay. It has been incorporated into many daily practices. AI is now more accessible and becoming a regularly used tool, especially with the popularization of ChatGPT and use of AI in popular applications like Adobe and Canva. I’d like to see librarians empowering citizens to be more AI savvy and instill confidence in citizens who are wary of AI. There are endless possibilities for connection through the use of technology. 

References

Kennedy, B., Tyson, A., Saks, E.. (2023, February 15). Public awareness of artificial intelligence in everyday activities. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2023/02/15/public-awareness-of-artificial-intelligence-in-everyday-activities/