The World of AI

How libraries are integrating and navigating this powerful technology

A hot topic in many industries, generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) has increasingly occupied our cultural consciousness since the large language model ChatGPT debuted for public use in November 2022. Some libraries are playing a unique role in charting a path through this new technological territory as the boundaries of AI’s uses and impacts continue to shift.

“Librarians are asking if AI will render us obsolete — it won’t,” says Nick Tanzi, library technology consultant, author, and assistant director of South Huntington Public Library in Huntington Station, New York. “We are information professionals, and our information landscape has just grown in complexity.”

AI’s critics have sounded the alarm about the models’ tendency to reinforce and amplify any biases found in the data they are trained on. Others have raised concerns about false information and privacy, as well as plagiarism and copyright, issues of particular concern to academic and school libraries. How can users be sure the output generated by AI tools is legal, ethical, and accurate?

“There’s an old saying: ‘Garbage in, garbage out,’” says Elissa Malespina, teacher-librarian at Union (N.J.) High School, who writes the AI School Librarians Newsletter. “In the world of AI, it’s a matter of ‘data in, data out.’ Make sure you’ve got a clear sense of not just how AI operates but also where it’s drawing its knowledge from. It’s all about being an informed user.”

American Libraries spoke with five technology experts, educators, and librarians who are pioneering the use of generative AI at their institutions. They discuss how it’s being used in libraries, what ethical concerns have emerged, and how librarians can educate their communities on navigating these powerful technologies.

By Emily Udell | March 1, 2024 Fonte: https//americanlibrariesmagazine.org Acessado em: 16/01/2026. Acesso em 16/01/2026.