Can it pass my class for me?

Hello friends,
Teams have been formed and it seems the near future is not so near and more imminent than ever before. We are working on a variety of AI projects to increase the convenience for students in our academic library. Upgrade pending.

Typically when think of AI, of the glaring examples of the headline busters, chat gpt, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s co-pilot there’s a lot of choices to make. There are a variety of “AI bots” popping up all over the internet promising to provide all those desirable shortcuts in work, creativity, and productivity. Our library is but the latest to hop on the trend of trying our hand at the technology. But how beneficial it will be remains to be seen and in what applications at that. We currently have multiple projects and I can’t help but wish that there was more communication and study about what is actually needed for students, a differing comparison as to what is needed for faculty and employees, and lastly what is needed for the organization.
While I volunteered to be on one of the projects happily, there was a bit of spit in the eye as a new project with a similar objective sprung up and i was assigned to that as well. Then, I was informed that there was a third project that had started even earlier that is just now coming to light.

The greed in me is gladfully accepting that AI is becoming the norm and that someone with my background (ethnically speaking) will be able to contribute to information that the bot produces for end users thereby curbing some of the inherent biases that traditional AI models and datasets draw from. But what I will most likely be working on will not have in-depth answers that are a result of generative AI and require a smidge of interpretation.

The project with the most focus simply links to a landing page that has some library information on it. Hey, I’m not knocking it in the slightest! We need for students to be able to answer the basic questions without having to travel all the way to the library because every semester we see an influx of students and community members asking directional/informational and organizational related inquiries. A bot that could redirect and help to answer those questions is less time directed at the menial and a surplus of time dedicated to strategic goals for our library and professional growth on the side.

The best part is that we have options for which tool to create/ascertain and implement. I just pray that the shiniest toy that costs the least amount of consequence on the budget we have to justify every fiscal year isn’t the clear winner simply because of its characteristics of “new” and “competitively priced”.

Also students may be trying to get it to do their homework, contributing to a decline in information literacy, critical thinking and reasoning, and work ethic in the face of a task or challenge. These tools should be accompanied with ethics and best practices (we have created resources for this).
In the words of Dewey from Malcolm in the Middle after Scoring a bucket on his father Hal in a friendly game of hoops, “The future is now, Old man”. This future we’re building for our library needs a gifted star player, and the draft is the fun part. The upgrade is welcome.

Best,