AI for Knowledge

The book investigates how AI will impact everyday knowledge discovery, understanding and creation. It considers both the positive benefits and the many informational and ethical challenges, including the impact on our wider information culture. It then weighs up the impact on scholarship, in science, social science and the humanities and including the processes of scholarly communication. It explains the role of libraries and archives and how they could be enhanced using AI. It concludes by showing how governments can regulate AI to ensure social benefit and outlines what we as individuals need to know about AI.

The book helps the reader see through some of the AI hype to understand much more clearly what are the issues around the impact of AI on knowledge access and creation, including the implications for environmental sustainability and the power of Big Tech. What emerges is a nuanced picture of potential benefit and risk, especially when we consider the experiences of those with less privileged access to the digital, particularly those outside the Global North.