Dan Cohen provides brief context for the upcoming Coalition for Networked Information Spring Meeting, touching on its broad themes, including ongoing conversations about artificial intelligence, and reflecting on the value of bringing together leaders from the research, library, and academic communities.
View Transcript
Gerry Bayne: So, Dan, I wanted to ask you about the upcoming CNI meeting. What do the Plenaries and project briefings together suggest about where libraries and research institutions are headed right now?
Dan Cohen: Sure. Well, I think, like everyone, we're all wrestling with AI and I think specifically like the proper place for artificial intelligence within our research and teaching enterprise. And what I would say on that is that the CNI meeting is just a great place for us to sit together and puzzle out.
Actually, the sort of right, ethical, effective, implementation of artificial intelligence, and frankly, to just maintain our agency in doing that. And I think CNI is a great place, in fact, the perfect place to have, you know, transparent, and, you know, exciting debates about these sorts of things. So when I look at the Plenaries and the panels, there is a lot about AI. It's not all about AI. But I see those, colleagues and, and peers wrestling with these questions in that great expanse of the middle between complete skepticism and manic enthusiasm and trying to find that same middle way. And so CNI is really for me, the key place where we can have those conversations, we can have those debates, we can look at what other people are doing, we can borrow ideas, and we can sort of map out the future together in a sensible way.
Again, that is effective and ethical.
This episode features:
Dan Cohen
Dean of the Library; Vice Provost for Information Collaboration; Professor of History
Northeastern University