Automating intellectual freedom: Artificial intelligence, bias, and the information landscape

Abstract

Anxieties over automation and personal freedom are challenging libraries’ role as havens of intellectual freedom. The introduction of artificial intelligence into the resource description process creates an opportunity to reshape the digital information landscape—and loss of trust by library users. Resource description necessarily manipulates a library’s presentation of information, which influences the ways users perceive and interact with that information. Human catalogers inevitably introduce personal and cultural biases into their work, but artificial intelligence may perpetrate biases on a previously unseen scale. The automation of this process may be perceived as a greater threat than the manipulation produced by human operators. Librarians must understand the risks of artificial intelligence and consider what oversight and countermeasures are necessary to mitigate the harm to libraries and their users before ceding resource description to artificial intelligence in place of the “professional considerations” the IFLA Statement on Libraries and Intellectual Freedom calls for in providing access to library materials.

Adopting Artificial Intelligence Technology for Network Operations in Digital Transformation

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AI policies across the globe: Implications and recommendations for libraries

“…This is often seen as a necessary part of continually improving a system, by providing an algorithm with feedback about its efficacy via data about the user’s behavior when browsing in order to further improve the system. Serious consideration of the dangers to patron privacy should be seen as a crucial element of upholding intellectual freedom with regard to adopting AI technologies in patron-facing services (Smith, 2021).…”

A study on the knowledge and perception of artificial intelligence

“…Additionally, machine learning algorithms analyse large data sets and make personalized recommendations to patrons. However, the use of AI in libraries also raises some concerns, such as the need for privacy, security and the ethical use of data (Asemi et al, 2020; Panda and Chakravarty, 2022; Smith, 2022). AI is a rapidly evolving field, changing how we interact with technology.…”