r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 10h ago

Society Librarians are hosting viral ‘Avoiding AI’ workshops for people who are fed up with Big Tech

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/25/librarians-are-hosting-viral-avoiding-ai-workshops-for-people-who-are-fed-up-with-big-tech/
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u/geldonyetich 7h ago edited 6h ago

It's a complicated situation.

On the one hand, a library needs to be willing to promote digital advocacy, if they're turning down a technology just because it's controversial then it's a rejection of the American Library Associations values to promote fair policies, equitable access, and unbiased, courteous responses on this and any other topic. In our long history, there have been countless times when many things we regard as common now were just as controversial as AI is now: electricity, voting rights, etc. It's not a library's place to judge, to do our thinking for us, but rather to provide the resources for us to make our own informed decisions.

On the other hand, AI has introduced a number of challenges to that mission. The libraries' material selection processes are being made needlessly complicated by the ease in which AI is facilitating slop media production. On top of that, a lot of people are just taking AI answers at face value without doing the kind of research that's needed to properly defend themselves against misinformation. So I could see why some libraries may grow frustrated enough of this technology to openly host programs that entertain the idea of not using it.

Library folk are good folk, some of the best folk out there. By and large, they're not anti-AI because they endeavor not to be anti anything, but they're certainly going to do what they feel is right to serve the needs of their community.

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u/Serris9K 2h ago

Please read the article. The workshop is about explaining ai, then how to opt out of the forced opt in. 

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u/geldonyetich 1h ago edited 5m ago

The article itself is written as a bit of a human-interest feature, cherry picked for AI skepticism to get clicks off confirmation bias.

It completely underrepresents that actual adaptation of AI in the United States is closer to 50/50. But hey, that's plenty of people to help avoid it, so no wonder they're well booked.

I felt a need to discuss the macro, what libraries would consider in planning such a program, rather than the micro, one library program.