51st Annual Conference

This panel proposes to spark a conversation and bridge connections between art and design librarians working across North America, in a variety of contexts and settings. Five panelists representing large and small American institutions, including museums, digital humanities, and academic libraries, will discuss the current trends they are observing within a range of disciplines, including art history, architecture, studio art and design, museum collections and curating, and urban planning. We are each working with populations who are interested in artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) technologies to develop creative works, investigate disciplinary questions, craft new solutions, and/or curate new collections. Once the realm of science fiction, the term AI was coined by American computer scientist John McCarthy in the 1950s, leading researchers to examine computer learning and its uses. As the machine-learning evolution has gained momentum over the last ten years, questions have arisen, such as: How can we ensure that we are not codifying societal biases and inequities into these new technologies? Are humans prepared to critically interrogate AI, NLP, and ML? How are creators working with these new technologies to innovate in their fields? How do we support and preserve these new works across their life cycle? How do we teach about them, describe them, pay attribution to both the AI and the human creator? Recent controversies over the DALL-E 2 technology illustrate some of these conundrums, as does the dismissal of a Google employee who claimed that AI has become sentient. On the other hand, AI has allowed artists and designers to create new, even international partnerships, generating groundbreaking development and marketing of innovative work, often external to art markets that may have once constrained such creativity. Given these questions, this panel poses the following questions of our profession: How can we support patrons, students, and creators as they work with these technologies? What can we be prepared for, and what can we leverage? And, what skills will be needed? After brief presentations, panelists will pose discussion prompts to the audience to learn what experiences attendees have had with AI at their respective institutions, including professional, research, and pedagogical applications. We hope that this session will lead to a better understanding of the trends, opportunities, challenges, and future of AI and affiliated technologies, as well as its uses within art, architecture, and design librarianship.

Sponsored by
McGill University Libraries
University of Arkansas Libraries