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Artificial Intelligence

This guide is a basic overview of Artificial Intellegence through the lens of student research in an academic library.
“The art of thinking about thinking in an intellectually disciplined manner.” (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
  • Groundbreaking BBC research shows issues with over half the answers from Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistants (BBC, Feb 2025) (Full Report)
  • No algorithm can replace human wisdom and analysis. But no algorithm will need to if we have abandoned — wholesale — a millennium of critical reading and thinking skills. (Joan Westenberg)
  • Higher confidence in GenAI is associated with less critical thinking, while higher self-confidence is associated with more critical thinking. (Lee, Hao-Ping, et.all, 2025)

Critical Thinking Questions for Interrogating AI Responses

  • What is the claim?
  • What is the evidence to support that claim?
  • What is the context and relevance?
  • What is another way to look at this information/issue?
  • How might different people understand this information differently?
  • Who is sharing the information? Where else is it being shared?
  • What is being represented and what is being omitted?
  • Why does it matter?
  • How does this information make me feel and why?

CAVEATS

CONCERNS

COSTS

It is not a search engine, but uses vast amounts of data to generate responses that appear to make sense. (https://guides.lib.uw.edu/hsl/ai#s-lg-box-30700741)

Artificial Intelligence: Risks to Privacy and Democracy

2019 Yale JL& Tech by Karl Manheim and Lyric Kaplan

'Thirsty' AI: Training ChatGPT Required Enough Water to Fill a Nuclear Reactor's Cooling Tower, Study Finds

May 10, 2023, Gizmodo by Mack DeGeurin

Environment

LLMs and AI are known for producing hallucinations, where the program presents and defends false information as if it were factual. Most LLMs have created citations to defend its statements, but these citations can be entirely fabricated.

Humans Absorb Bias from AI—And Keep It Ater They Stop Using the Algorithm

October 26, 2023 Scientific American by Lauren Leffer

‘It’s destroyed me completely’: Kenyan moderators decry toll of training of AI models

August 2, 2023, The Guardian by Niamh Rowe

Human

LLMs have access to knowledge up to a given date. (https://arxiv.org/html/2403.12958v2)

AI models fed AI-generated data quickly spew nonsense

July 24, 2024 Nature by ElizabehtGibney

Three Mile Island nuclear plant will reopen to power Microsoft data centers

September 20, 2024, NPR by C Mandler

Energy

LLMs' privacy policies may allow the creators to sell and profit off of your personal information. Anything you submit to an LLM may become a part of the LLM's learning corpus.

Is Generative AI Fair Use of Copyright Works? NYT v. OpenAI

February 29, 2024 Kluwer Copyright Blog by Mira T. SundaraRajan

Making an image with generative AI uses as much energy as charging your phone

December 1, 2023 Technology Review by Melissa Heikkila

Energy

Many LLMsare for-profit tools and by engaging with them you are adding to their learning corpus which is, at its core, unpaid labor while benefitting from the devastation of paid workers and the environment.

Lawsuit claims Character.AI is responsible for teen's suicide

October 23, 2024 NBC News by Angela Yang

ChatGPT is a data privacy nightmare. If you’ve ever posted online, you ought to be concerned

February 9, 2023 The Conversation by Uri Gal

Human

Jesuit Writings on AI