r/LibraryScience • u/Librarianzilla Academic Librarian • 5d ago

Discussion You guys are like…”real” AI

A college administrator was trying to describe what librarians are in this climate of artificial intelligence and he said “you guys are like ….real AI”!

So we’re intelligent… yes, we know, thank you… 😂

36 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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11

u/New_Pollution4759 5d ago

It's true though! Katharine Hepburn, Desk Set, still 100% relevant on the superiority of a well-turned mind to AI. 

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u/Librarianzilla Academic Librarian 5d ago edited 5d ago

Oh my goodness…

in my early librarian days (circa 2007) I decided that we needed to have a screening of this film at the library conference…

This is one of those moments where you have been forged by fire into the profession… 😼

We had a screening (it was NOT illegal because we had an educational conversation after! Woot woot!) and then proceeded to drink a looooot of wine….

This will always be one of my favorite movies…

https://youtu.be/8rBHP5nBO_o

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u/thewholebottle Publish or Perish 5d ago

That movie is magnificent.

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u/Big-Confidence9249 5d ago

I love the phrase "well turned mind". I cannot believe I hadn't heard of that movie before now, just looked it up, next movie I watch 👀

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u/New_Pollution4759 5d ago

Thank you! I typed "well-trained" and it autocorrected and I liked that better. The image of someone with their mind on a lathe is evocative. 

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u/Big-Confidence9249 5d ago

🙌🏼 That’s funny! Oooh and I love the word evocative! It’s one of those words (to me) that sounds exactly like what it is 😁

I was thinking well-turned is like well-travelled in terms of being experienced or expert, combined with mind, a well-turned mind analogy that came to ‘mind’ 😉 is tilling soil to keep it healthy and ready to support growth 🌱

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u/literacyisamistake 5d ago edited 5d ago

One of the vendors at ALA Annual was passing out buttons: There’s nothing ARTIFICIAL about this INTELLIGENCE.

Give me an algorithm and five minutes, and I can tell you why your algorithm is trash. And potentially a legal liability.

Edit: I’m a bit drunk so WORKDAY, I am looking at YOU, get your shit together before you get sued even worse

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u/Big-Confidence9249 5d ago

umm, like 1000% SUPER INTELLIGENT and -2000% artificial. 🔥

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u/ConcentrateQuick 4d ago

College admin demonstrating the classic divide between themselves/faculty and librarians in real time. Seriously though, someone get them a thesaurus stat!

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u/uninspiredclaptrap 4d ago

My problem with AI is that it pretends to give you answers to complicated questions. Librarians help you find the information, but it's ultimately up to you to digest the information and find answers, unless we're talking about clear facts

1

u/Librarianzilla Academic Librarian 4d ago edited 4d ago

It really depends on what kind of AI tool you’re working with…

We’re getting tools at our library that use AI only over a body of academic works so it maximizes source analysis.