Information and library professionals' roles and responsibilities in an AI‐augmented world
Gary Marchionini · Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) · 2024
General artificial intelligence (AI) and more specific generative AI (GenAI) label the latest wave in information technology advance. Today's developments are driven by the confluence of carefully layered deterministic and probabilistic algorithms running on networks of very high-performance processors that have access to enormous volumes of structured and unstructured inputs. Beyond the immediate excitement of new technical breakthroughs lies Engelbart's (1962) vision of the inexorable advance of our species' ability to use tools and knowledge to amplify and augment human physical and mental existence. More historically, we are in the midst of thousands of years of human appreciation for an evolving notion of intelligence (Tenen, 2024). Given this context for GenAI and related technologies, what are the roles and responsibilities for information and library science professionals?