As the capabilities of AI advance, it's important for us to develop AI literacy. That is, to develop the skills needed to navigate a world where AI is commonplace. AI literacy can be defined as "a set of competencies that enables individuals to critically evaluate AI technologies; communicate and collaborate effectively with AI; and use AI as a tool online, at home, and in the workplace." (Long & Magerko, 2020).
Sources:
Long, D. & Magerko, B. (2020). "What is ai literacy? Competencies and design considerations." Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376727
Research the AI tool you are using.
Evaluate its responses.
Just because AI can generate answers that sound good doesn't mean it's generating answers that are accurate or truthful. Take time to evaluate and fact-check the responses generated by AI. While AI can serve as a helpful tool, it doesn't compare to or replace human intelligence and critical thinking skills.
The ROBOT test (created by and shared with the permission of McGill University librarians) can be used when reading about AI applications to help you assess the credibility of the technology.
Reliability
Objective
Bias
Ownership
Type
Reliability
How reliable is the information available about the AI technology?
Objective
Bias
Owner
Type
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Sources:
Hervieux, S. & Wheatley, A. (2020). The ROBOT test [Evaluation tool]. The LibrAIry. https://thelibrairy.wordpress.com/2020/03/11/the-robot-test
The CLEAR framework (created by Leo S. Lo, Librarian and Professor at the University of New Mexico) offers guidelines for creating effective prompts with generative AI tools. The framework highlights five components for optimizing AI interactions:
Concise: Keep your prompt short and clear. Be specific and do not include irrelevant details.
Logical: Organize your ideas in a clear, logical order. There should be a natural flow between concepts.
Explicit: Give the AI tool clear instructions on what you want. Specify your preferred output format, content, and/or scope.
Adaptive: Experiment with different ways of structuring and phrasing your prompts to get more varied responses.
Reflective: Evaluate your prompts and the responses you received. Is there any room for improvement? Consider what can be done differently for future interactions.
Sources:
Lo, L. S. (2023). The clear path: A framework for enhancing information literacy through prompt engineering. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(4), 102720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102720