Last week I attended an artificial intelligence (AI) in libraries conference, and I've written the briefest of travelogues. [1] Some of my take-aways include:
1. Machine learning is simply the latest incarnation of AI, and
machine learning algorithms are only as unbiased as the data used
to create them. Be forewarned.
2. We can do this. We have the technology.
3. There is too much content to process, and AI in libraries can
used to do some of the more mechanical tasks. The creation and
maintenance of metadata is a good example. But again, be
forewarned. We were told this same thing with the advent of word
processors, and in the end, we didn’t go home early because we
got our work done. Instead we output more letters.
4. Metadata is not necessary. Well, that was sort of a debate,
and (more or less) deemed untrue.
If you want to participate in AI for libraries-like discussions, then consider subscribing to ai4lib.
[1] travelogue - https://sites.nd.edu/emorgan/2018/12/fantastic-futures/
[2] ai4lib – https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ai4lib
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Eric Lease Morgan
University of Notre Dame
