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Artificial Intelligence - Student Guide

Artificial Intelligence

What is Artificial Intelligence?

"Artificial intelligence refers to the branch of computer science that is focused on giving computers human intelligence. Upon hearing the term, most people think of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, or maybe the character David from the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence. The truth is that those forms of AI are still a long way off." 

National Geographic (Ed.). (2011). Artificial intelligence. In The Big Idea: How Breakthroughs of the Past Shape the Future (1st ed.). National Geographic Society. https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6MzI1NDIxMQ==?aid=107032

What is Fuzzy Logic?

"The concept of a fuzzy set, introduced by L. A. Zadeh in 1965, deals with the representation of classes whose boundaries are not sharp."

"Different semantics (interpretations) can be associated with the use of fuzzy sets. One—historically the oldest one—is the expression of closeness, proximity, similarity, indiscernibility, indistinguishability and the like." 

Reilly, E. D., Ralston, A., & Hemmendinger, D. (Eds.). (2003). Fuzzy logic. In Encyclopedia of Computer Science (4th ed.). Wiley. https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6MTY2NTM5Nw==?aid=107032

What is an LLM or Large Language model?

"Large language model (LLM), a deep-learning algorithm that uses massive amounts of parameters and training data to understand and predict text. This generative artificial intelligence-based model can perform a variety of natural language processing tasks outside of simple text generation, including revising and translating content."

Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). Large language model (LLM). Britannica Academic. Retrieved August 20, 2024, from https://academic-eb-com.devry.idm.oclc.org/levels/collegiate/article/large-language-model/641255

What is an AI hallucination?

"Hallucinations are instances when models produce outputs that, though coherent, might be detached from factual reality or from the input's context."

Pradhan, R. (2023, October 23). Addressing AI hallucinations with retrieval-augmented generation. InfoWorld.com, NA. https://link-gale-com.devry.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A769960305/GBIB?u=devry_downergrov&sid=summon&xid=8bf33a37

AI Literacy Framework

Artificial Intelligence Information Literacy Components

Authority Is Constructed and Contextual

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) large language models are based on data inputs.
    • AI Chatbots that use data from the internet like Gemni, CoPilot, ChatGPT, and like are still evolving and suffer from invalid data output. It will make stuff up.
    • AI Chatbots based in a Library database or defined dataset have better accuracy.
  • Data sets contain biased information. Sometimes extremely biased.
  • AI uses probability to formulate its responses, not necessarily facts.
  • Opinions expressed in the prompt will be expressed in the results.
  • AI applications in library databases sometimes misrepresent the data.  

Information Creation as a Process

  • The response is only as good as the prompt. AI tends to be vague and general.
  • AI aggregates information from disparate sources. Not all are authoritative, unless in a database environment.
  • Large Language Models (LLM) probability programming to produce natural-sounding language, however, intended and unintended bias may be displayed in the results. 

Information Has Value

  • Hallucinations! It will make up sources and facts depending on the dataset.
  • Verify all resources cited in a response.
  • AI applications in the library databases pull from a defined pool of information (dataset/scholarly sources/articles). 

Research as Inquiry

  • AI may be used to narrow or expand a topic. 
  • AI applications in library resources have the ability to summarize sources and allow the user to explore a topic more efficiently.
  • AI is useful for generating search terms.
  • AI is useful for generating lists.
  • AI is useful for generating outlines (caution, the outlines are very general and lack details found in academic outlines). Do not copy and paste.
  • Bias is an issue due to an incomplete dataset. AI does not have access to everything.

Scholarship as Conversation

  • AI can not speak for a student. 
  • Useful for creating and refining ideas and concepts.
  • AI application may be used to summarize the "conversation/research to date." 

Searching as Strategic Exploration

  • AI does not evaluate resource validity in responses. 
  • Generate keywords for searching.
  • Generate topics for research.
  • Generate outlines.