Public Statements

Consumer Resources United States Mixed perspective

Open models, closed models, and the library in the middle

Mixed Posted by Eleanor Bishop Reading time ~ 2 min

This is community opinion, not fact. Moderated before publication.

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I am a reference librarian at a mid-sized public library. Patrons ask me about AI almost every week now, and I do not have one tidy answer. For a job seeker drafting a CV, a closed commercial assistant is often the easiest tool. For a community group worried about privacy, an open model running locally on one of our branch workstations is a better fit. For a student researching a controversial topic, I usually suggest they use the assistant to find threads to pull, not as the last word. My feelings on the AI landscape are mixed because my patrons' needs are mixed. I worry about the concentration of AI capability in a few large companies, because my profession has seen what happens when information infrastructure is controlled by a handful of vendors. I also recognize that many of the most useful tools, today, come from those same companies. Libraries have always mediated between commercial information products and the public interest. I think we have a role to play here, and I hope funders and policymakers see libraries as part of the AI access story rather than an afterthought. Give us training budgets, legal clarity on what we can do, and the ability to host open models. We will meet our communities where they are.
#Government Resources #Consumer Resources #World View

Other perspectives

Same topic, different stance.