Webinar: Who Even Wrote This? Welcome to the Post-AI Library

Description

Libraries and other digital collections are beginning to see a surge in AI-generated submissions—sometimes dozens from the same author. This growing strain is colliding in the US with an increasing threat to staff and budgets due to the administration's aim of dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This webinar will open by framing generative AI as a lossy compression of human knowledge—useful in some contexts, but risky when it replaces ground truth in archives and collections. From there, we’ll walk through five possible policy responses to the surge in AI-generated submissions, from outright bans to “AI shelves” to community review. As AI writing becomes harder to detect and more embedded in everyday tools, we’ll also ask whether traditional ideas of authorship, verification, and even the library itself need to be rethought.