PLEASE NOTE: OUR SPEAKER WILL ATTEND THROUGH ZOOM.  WILL BE VIEWED IN THE GALLERY HALL.

Talk of AI is ubiquitous, and libraries are no exception. Some have posed AI as a panacea for libraries, from reshaping discoverability to improving operations. Others have foregrounded the real and material harms of AI systems, from labor to patron privacy to intellectual property, which have only intensified over the past few years. Within this context, libraries across the world have begun exploring this tradeoff through experimenting with and operationalizing approaches using contemporary AI systems, including large language models. This work has brought its own set of questions related to developing staff AI literacy, defining AI policies, and creating patron programming. In this talk, I will explore the state of the field surrounding these approaches, with a focus on efforts to apply AI to collections. Informed by my own research on “computing cultural heritage” and teaching focused on cross-campus AI literacy at the University of Washington, I will reflect on future directions for this collective work, and how libraries are uniquely positioned to contribute to the development of AI systems while also embodying library values through experimentation and even refusal.

Learning Outcomes:

Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on scenarios from their own practice and brainstorm strategies for addressing barriers, ask questions, and troubleshoot common concerns.

Benjamin Charles Germain Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, where he has started the Lab for Computing Cultural Heritage. Ben's research explores how to re-imagine search and discovery for large-scale digital collections held by libraries, archives, and museums. Previously, Ben has served as an Innovator in Residence as well as a Kluge Fellow in Digital Studies at the Library of Congress. He also was the inaugural Digital Humanities Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, a Visiting Fellow in Harvard’s History Department, and the Richard and Ina Willner Memorial Fellow in the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. Ben received his Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Washington, which was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in machine learning. His public writing has appeared in publications including The New Republic, WIRED, and Longreads.