When Nathan Flowers, professor and systems librarian at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina, was planning a trip to Japan a year ago, he enlisted the help of ChatGPT.
He had double checked all of its recommendations except for one specific restaurant in Kyoto. “When we arrived, there was a laundromat where the restaurant was,” he said. In fact, after some research he discovered that there never was a restaurant there at all.
Navigating misinformation and weighing ethical and privacy issues in artificial intelligence (AI) were top of mind for the panelists at “AI and Libraries: A Discussion on the Future,” a January 21 session at the American Library Association’s 2024 LibLearnX Conference in Baltimore. Flowers was joined by Virginia Cononie, assistant librarian and coordinator of research at University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg; Dray MacFarlane, cofounder of Tasio, an AI consulting company; and Juan Rubio, digital media learning program manager for Seattle Public Library (SPL).
Rubio, who used AI to create a tool to help teens at SPL reflect on their mental health and well-being, said there is excitement behind the technology and how it can be harnessed, but there should also be efforts to educate patrons on how to use it responsibly.
“I think ethical use of AI comes with creating ethical people,” he said, adding that SPL has been thinking about implementing guidelines for using AI. “Be very aware of your positionality [as librarians], because I think we are in a place of privilege—not necessarily of money or power, but of knowledge.”
Cononie emphasized being aware of potential privacy issues when it comes to using AI. She recalled a time when she was using Google Bard and realized it was saving every single one of the search queries she entered. “Be aware of your settings and understand that you are agreeing to a set of terms and agreements as you’re using these tools,” Cononie said. Knowing she was going to be showing others examples of how she used Google Bard and that it might show others her search history, she turned that setting off.
MacFarlane discussed how he thinks that the level of technical skill needed to use AI is dropping, making this an ideal time for librarians to begin learning about it. “One of the reasons that you need to get involved with this technology now, despite the risks that we’re talking about is because this is actually the least risky time that it’s ever going to be,” he said. “[AI will get] more and more powerful.”
Ultimately, panelists agreed that AI is an emerging technology that will soon become as prominent as the internet, growing at a pace that’s hard for all to keep up with.
“When the internet was new for librarians, they were often the ones that were having to train people on what it was about and how to use it and whether or not to trust it,” Flowers said. “Same thing here. Everybody’s going to have to be aware of what is going to be available for those patrons when they come to you and have a question about it.”
