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In this issue: Recap of Summative Meeting, Day 1

Today’s meeting featured Beth Patin from Syracuse University, Jeff Rubin from Syracuse University, Ken Fleischmann of UT Austin, and Stephen Wyber from IFLA.

Introduction by David Lankes

Dr. David Lankes offered welcoming remarks as well as an indication that this meeting can serve as a closing of the SLAAIT project. The project was term-limited from the outset, though we have new members and the ongoing work may be continuing in a different format. Discussion today and tomorrow will elaborate.

Beth Patin

Dr. Beth Patin is an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University who wears many hats. She hosts a podcast with David and Dr. Mike Eisenberg called Libraries Lead.

She spoke about epistemicide, and called on information professionals to consider the ways in which we can harm our patrons via testimonial, hermeneutical, participatory, curricular, and commemorative categories of epistemic injustices. She spoke about the loss of information in many formats, and how AI specifically omits and provides incorrect information.

To paraphrase Dr. Patin, if we are going to use digital tools (like AI) to pull information from biased historical sources, what information are we going to miss? She provided recommendations for further reading: Artificial Knowing, Race After Technology, Automating Inequality, and Algorithms of Oppression. She closed with a reminder that Ranganathan knew what he was doing a hundred years ago, when he told us the library is a growing organism, and that our current challenges with AI are just one part of this. David helpfully commented that a public AI could be a good option to prevent epistemicide that we are currently seeing in LLMs.

Jeff Rubin

Dr. Jeff Rubin is a Professor and SVP/Chief Digital Officer at Syracuse and CEO of SIDEARM Sports.

He shared Gartner/Salesforce predictions for 2030, which indicated that AI is likely going to play a huge role in the higher education sphere, and that teachers and students are likely early adopters of the technology. He posits that libraries will play a significant role in helping society adapt and learn to use AI technologies, and that use of AI will be a necessary life skill for us, much like the internet is today. Dr. Rubin recommended that beginners use AI vs. search engines to get started, and he feels that AI has many pertinent uses within academia. He demonstrated using ChatGPT to create a practice test for his students based on transcripts of his lectures.

Dr. Rubin advises that there are risks to moving slow to adapt AI, and that emerging opportunities include investing in education, promoting knowledge sharing, developing realistic AI policies, and building sustainable AI practices. Recommendations for encouraging and promoting AI use include curating materials (e.g, prompts, policy, and news items) for your target audience. He also shared the link for https://ibl.ai/, which is an open-source generative AI module for educators.

Ken Fleischmann

Dr. Ken Fleischmann spoke about libraries in the AI age. He is a Professor at The University of Texas at Austin. He discussed the public concern and distrust regarding AI, despite rapid adoption. Dr. Fleischmann importantly emphasized that research ad surveys have indicated that libraries and librarians are trusted institutions (though most recent PEW data was in 2017), and that this will guide AI access for the public. Mike Buschman from the Washington State Library voiced concerns about libraries not becoming the trusted partner for the public with respect to AI usage. Fleischmann proposed that librarians will likely be far more relevant in the AI era than is feared. He expressed that, “designing AI technologies that benefit society is our grand challenge,” and what his Good Systems work addresses. He also discussed UT’s MS degree in AI, with a requirement for his Ethics in AI course.

Stephen Wyber

Mr. Stephen Wyber, External Affairs Director for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), was the final speaker of the day. He spoke about different countries’ libraries’ experiences with AI, including Singapore, Netherlands, Chile, and the UAE. Equitable access was a recurring theme internationally, as well as libraries’ role in facilitating this access. Mr. Wyber showcased European countries’ policy-first regulation of AI will hopefully ensure that AI is used to support the public interest, which is in contrast to AI policy here in the US. He shared links to IFLA’s AI SIG and how to subscribe.