Many librarians and information professionals have seen conversations around artificial intelligence (AI) and its uses quickly expand alongside assumptions that it has significant staying power, that as information literacy instructors we need to jump on the train of teaching and using it to keep up to date with the latest technology, and that its proliferation and widespread adoption in society is inevitable. This presentation will challenge these assumptions by drawing attention to AI's significant and oft overlooked environmental impacts through a critical information literacy framework and Ecoliteracy. We cannot talk about 'ethical' AI use without considering its environmental impact.
Participants will:
- be able to recognize the impact of AI on the environment
- be able to articulate what ecoliteracy is and why AI's environmental impact must be included in any conversation about AI in ethical/critical information literacy
- be encouraged to identify how can we implement this perspective into their work, and how to expand this critique beyond AI to any other emerging tools and technology
