Just Say No to AI: Refusal as Instruction Equipping Patrons to Resist AI, Data Brokers, Big Tech, & More

This post is part of a series entitled, "Just Say Not to AI." Click here to pull up all the posts in this series (in reverse chronological order). For the first post in this series, click here.

FINALLY!

After the last couple of years of watching library after library, program after program, all of which are saying that in our profession that we have to learn how to live with AI, finally we have a public librarian in a peer reviewed journal not only explaining why we NEED to refuse AI, but why acting to actively teach people how to resist, we are actually serving our profession.

I started this "Just Say No to AI" series because I was LIVID after watching a program from RUSA that was preaching about how great AI was for the academic librarian presenter. She also trashed RA as something AI could do. Read that first post here-- and as you could probably guess-- I did not hold back.

But here we are with another ALA group, Core and their Information Technology and Libraries, peer reviewed journal with the exact opposite viewpoint. It is written by Hannah Cyrus, from Bangor Public Library, and she is my new hero. It is also open source so all of you can read it for free at this link.

Here is the Abstract from the article landing page so you know what you are getting yourself into:

Refusal As Instruction: Equipping Patrons to Resist AI, Data Brokers, Big Tech, & More 

By Hannah Cyrus, Bangor Public Library 

Abstract: This column explores the ways in which library workers can better align technology use and instruction in library settings with library values, through championing the refusal of technologies that conflict with values like privacy and intellectual freedom. Drawing on experiences with individual patron instruction, class design, and passive programming, the author shares practical steps for helping patrons to understand and fight back against exploitation by digital technologies. Rejecting the myth that any technology is “neutral,” the column argues that libraries as values-driven organizations have a role to play in facilitating patrons’ rejection of technology, just as much as in their adoption of it. 

This is a well reasoned and clearly written article, as the editor notes in her introduction

Note from Shanna Hollich, column editor: I am particularly excited to share this issue's column for a number of reasons. First, it's from a public library perspective, which is one that is generally underrepresented in the LIS literature as a whole, and which I'm proud to say that ITAL makes a concerted effort to address. Second, it's about library instruction, a topic of relevance to all types of libraries - and where much of the literature specifically discusses formal library instruction, this column also addresses passive programming, informal instruction, and casual patron interaction, which are also vitally important and under-studied aspects of the library worker's role in education. And finally, it's yet another column about AI, and even more specifically, about taking a critical approach to AI tools, AI education, and AI literacy. Close readers may have noticed this topic tends to be a special interest of mine, but Hannah Cyrus takes a measured and reasoned approach here that acknowledges the potential harms of AI without falling into the trap of simply ignoring or denying AI and the very real impacts it is having on our libraries and the communities we serve.

I implore you....all of you...please read this article. This is what I need to keep going. I promise you, it is worth it. Here is an example from the next to last paragraph:

I have been asked by concerned coworkers if this attitude is too political for a public library  setting. My response is that this work is aligned with our stated values. If information professionals can’t teach the public that large language models are not a reliable source of  information, what can we teach? If we don’t stand up for privacy when it’s literally one of our core values, who will?

THIS!!! This is my new mantra. If we don't do this who will. This is the mantra Robin and I use to justify why our Anti-racist Service to Leisure Readers Programming is essential and vital. Why we work so hard to get that message out despite the people who disagree, at best, and actively try to stop us, at worst.

If you aren't going to stand up for our values, for what is right, who will?