Research Guides: AI Literacy: Home

Subject Librarian

Régan Schwartz

she|her

Contact:

Schow Library
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rms8@williams.edu

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Subjects: Computer Science, Economics, Geosciences, Mathematics, Public Health, Statistics

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term for technologies that aim to create machines that approach human intelligence and decision-making capabilities. These technologies are embedded to some degree in most facets of our daily life - from healthcare to finance to the algorithms that shape our online experiences.

Generative AI

Often when folks refer to "AI" these days they mean, specifically, generative AI. Generative AI is AI that produces new content, such as text, images, code, or sound. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini, image generators, and research tools that summarize or re-present information are all examples of generative AI.

How does it work?

Broadly speaking, generative AI tools work by analyzing vast amounts of data, finding patterns and associations, building statistical representations of those patterns and associations and then applying them to create something new in response to input and prompting from a human user.

GenAI at Williams

Through your Google workspace, you have institutional access to Gemini and NotebookLM. Additionally, many applications provided by Williams have integrated AI tools. For more information about these tools, use the links below.

Inventory of AI in Williams Academic Technology Applications
OIT's list of applications provided by Williams with AI-enabled features.
Academic Technology Services
Faculty and staff can contact their department's Academic Technology Consultant for more information.
OIT Student Help Desk
Students can contact the help desk for more information.

Want to learn more?

Gen AI Basics
A series of short videos introducing generative AI from the MA Library System.
A jargon-free explanation of how AI large language models work
A primer on the structure and function of large language models from Ars Technica.
Elements of AI
A free online course developed by the University of Helsinki.
Constellate's Introduction to LLMs (Part 1)
This series of videos explores the underlying transformer architecture of ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is Bullshit by Hicks, Michael Townsen ; Humphries, James ; Slater, Joe
Publication Date: June, 2024

The language used to describe the phenomenon of an LLM creating falsehoods has moved from "hallucination" to "confabulation." This paper argues that we might better understand the idea as "bullshitting."
On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? by Bender, Emily M. ; Gebru, Timnit ; McMillan-Major, Angelina ; Shmitchell, Shmargaret
Publication Date: 2021

In this paper, the authors examine the risks associated with current direction of LLM research and offer recommendations for moving the field beyond relying on expansion.
Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick
ISBN: 9780593716717

Publication Date: 2024-04-02

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From Wharton professor and author of the popular One Useful Thing Substack newsletter Ethan Mollick comes the definitive playbook for working, learning, and living in the new age of AI Something new entered our world in November 2022 -- the first general purpose AI that could pass for a human and do the kinds of creative, innovative work that only humans could do previously. Wharton professor Ethan Mollick immediately understood what ChatGPT meant: after millions of years on our own, humans had developed a kind of co-intelligence that could augment, or even replace, human thinking. Through his writing, speaking, and teaching, Mollick has become one of the most prominent and provocative explainers of AI, focusing on the practical aspects of how these new tools for thought can transform our world. In Co-Intelligence, Mollick urges us to engage with AI as co-worker, co-teacher, and coach. He assesses its profound impact on business and education, using dozens of real-time examples of AI in action. Co-Intelligence shows what it means to think and work together with smart machines, and why it's imperative that we master that skill. Mollick challenges us to utilize AI's enormous power without losing our identity, to learn from it without being misled, and to harness its gifts to create a better human future. Wide ranging, hugely thought-provoking, optimistic, and lucid, Co-Intelligence reveals the promise and power of this new era.
AI - Limits and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence by Peter Klimczak (Editor); Christer Petersen (Editor)
ISBN: 9783839457320

Publication Date: 2023-08-04

The emergence of artificial intelligence has triggered enthusiasm and promise of boundless opportunities as much as uncertainty about its limits. The contributions to this volume explore the limits of AI, describe the necessary conditions for its functionality, reveal its attendant technical and social problems, and present some existing and potential solutions. At the same time, the contributors highlight the societal and attending economic hopes and fears, utopias and dystopias that are associated with the current and future development of artificial intelligence.

AI Literacy