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Intro to PTC Library Resources & Services

Introduction to library resources and services for students, faculty, and staff.

What is GenAI?

Always consult your syllabus or your instructor about AI use for class. This is meant to be an introduction to what GenAI is, how it works, and where to find more information about it.

Generative AI - "artificial intelligence (see artificial intelligence sense 2) that is capable of generating new content (such as images or text) in response to a submitted prompt (such as a query) by learning from a large reference database of examples"

  • “Generative AI.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/generative%20AI. Accessed 9 Aug. 2024.

Why does AI hallucinate and make things up? What personal information should you keep private and not tell an AI?

Although this video was produced about 6 months before the release of ChatGPT in 2022, it does a really good job of explaining how AI works, where we see it in the world besides GenAI, and raises really important issues with AI that are also reflected in GenAI systems. 

"What is AI?" Boston Museum of Science. https://youtu.be/NbEbs6I3eLw?si=SUlKieQlaeynnlmI. March 29, 2022.

Start Researching with the PTC Library!

How Do I Apply Information Literacy to AI?

Use the ROBOT Test to evaluate the AI tools you come across.

Reliability

  • How reliable is the information available about the AI technology?
  • If it’s not produced by the party responsible for the AI, what are the author’s credentials? Bias?
  • If it is produced by the party responsible for the AI, how much information are they making available? 
    • Is information only partially available due to trade secrets?
    • How biased is the information that they produce?

Objective

  • What is the goal or objective of the use of AI?
  • What is the goal of sharing information about it?
    • To inform?
    • To convince?
    • To find financial support?

Bias

  • What could create bias in the AI technology?
  • Are there ethical issues associated with this?
  • Are bias or ethical issues acknowledged?
    • By the source of information?
    • By the party responsible for the AI?
    • By its users?

Ownership

  • Who is the owner or developer of the AI technology?
  • Who is responsible for it?
    • Is it a private company?
    • The government?
    • A think tank or research group?
  • Who has access to it?
  • Who can use it?

Type

  • Which subtype of AI is it?
  • Is the technology theoretical or applied?
  • What kind of information system does it rely on?
  • Does it rely on human intervention?

Hervieux, S. & Wheatley, A. (2020). The ROBOT test [Evaluation tool]. The LibrAIry. https://thelibrairy.wordpress.com/2020/03/11/the-robot-test.

Use the CLEAR Framework to form prompts/queries.
  • CONCISE - place the most important information first and eliminate unnecessary information
  • LOGICAL - establish the order of information, context and relationships, logical flow
  • EXPLICIT - give instructions for tone, reading level, define instructions and format 
  • ADAPTIVE - be flexible and rephrase, restructure, and adjust your settings, parameters, and approach
  • REFLECTIVE - carefully evaluate AI responses and identify areas for improvement

Lo, Leo S. “The CLEAR Path: A Framework for Enhancing Information Literacy through Prompt Engineering.” Journal of Academic Librarianship, vol. 49, no. 4, July 2023. 

Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence

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