Is Artificial Intelligence the key to a utopian new future, or is it ruining everything? In this article, we’ll try to explain in plain language what it is and how you can learn more.
What Is It?
Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is a broad umbrella term for computerized systems that have been programmed to have human-like abilities, such as learning, reasoning, and decision-making. They are designed to simulate human perception and understanding, and to be capable of adapting based on new information or changing situations. Advances in A.I. are creating enormous changes in everything from medicine to agriculture to finance to astronomy.
Generative A.I. is a subfield of A.I. designed to create or generate things. Some examples: ChatGPT creates text that plausibly appears to have been written by a person. DALL-E makes images that are hard to distinguish from artworks created by people. These models have been “trained” on large bodies of human-created works and have learned how to convincingly replicate them.
Can Generative A.I. Answer My Questions?
It already has. The top result of most Google searches is generated by A.I. For instance:
The tag “AI Overview” alerts you to the fact that no human wrote this summary. Content creators are using Generative A.I to create websites, books, and even music; and they don’t always tell you they’re doing it.
Can I Trust Generative A.I.?
It’s important to know that Generative A.I.s sometimes give false or misleading answers. They are enormously complex and sophisticated systems, but they cannot know truth from fiction, and sometimes they offer fictions in the place of truth. These are known in the A.I. world as “hallucinations,” though others have proposed the term “confabulations” or even “fabrications.”
Take a look at this A.I.-generated image:
While at first glance this looks like an attractive watercolor painting, closer examination reveals a number of strange details: the steering wheel, the interior layout of the car, the woman’s arms and hands. These hallucinations give away that this image was created by Generative A.I.
Text-based Generative A.I. is also known to produce hallucinations: plausible-sounding falsehoods embedded in an otherwise-true paragraph. For instance, in May 2025, NPR reported that a summer book list full of hallucinations was published in some newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times. No one checked to see if the book titles listed really existed.
Bottom line: A.I. can be a helpful tool for research and learning, but it’s always worthwhile to check your facts.
That’s where the library comes in!
Learn More About A.I.
Stay up to date with the latest changes in A.I. and technology:
- Search the library catalog or the databases listed below for subjects such as: “Artificial Intelligence,” “Machine Learning,” “Deep Learning” to stay informed of the latest advances in technology.
- Read Peer Reviewed Articles from Academic Search Ultimate
- Search online newspapers on U.S. Newsstream
- Confront misinformation with the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, opens a new window
A.I. in the News
- Trump urges looser rules, wider energy access in al policy policy plan (August 3, 2025)
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Researchers tackle a crucial question: What happens when humans clash with AI- and each other? (July 30, 2025)
Cheyenne tech company helps create AI early detection tool for cognitive decline (July 28, 2025) - Lawyers embrace AI tools amid lack of uniform rules in courts (July 20, 2025)
Further Reading
Got Questions? Ask us!
Do you want to know that your research question is being answered by a person? Sno-Isle Librarians are available to assist you – no Generative A.I. included. You can contact us by email, chat, text, or phone.
If you need more in-depth help, you meet one-on-one with a librarian at your community library to receive personalized, step-by-step assistance with accessing online databases, archives and more. Schedule a Book a Librarian appointment.
Information provided by the Sno-Isle Libraries does not imply recommendation or endorsement, is not interpreted and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with a (law, engineering, financial, health care, etc.) provider.
