Tweet This
Libraries are getting into artificial intelligence--or, rather, artificial intelligence education.
There's a dearth of real clarity surrounding AI-related computer science and its implications for the public, despite its ubiquitous reference in the near-daily news generated by some of the largest companies in the US. The Urban Libraries Council has formed a working group of representatives from libraries from several cities across North America to remedy this.
The group, which represents fourteen libraries (from Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, D.C., Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Roanoke, Seattle, Toledo, and Toronto) recently convened its first meeting, according to the ULC, "to discuss opportunities for libraries to collaborate in order to get ahead of the potential risks presented by AI and to maximize the technology’s potential for public good." Those risks namely include threats to privacy via the collection, storage, and utilization of vast amounts of data that are necessary for deep learning.
Companies collecting user data have pretty much been running amok for several years, and very few people understand the scope of this problem. Those who do tend to be privileged.
The ULC, then, sees the roles of libraries--which have often historically served as trusted sources of knowledge--as providing information on AI to their communities, allowing them "to stand at the forefront of the movement for an equitable and inclusive future for the storage, privacy and application of data."
