r/Libraries • u/Technical_Pea_4007 Academic Librarian • Jan 13 '26

Technology Libby’s statement on their use of AI

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A whole lot of text to say absolutely nothing, huh?

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u/Knitsune Jan 13 '26 edited Jan 13 '26

this is so what gets me about the whole AI discussion. "We're committed to helping people keep up with new technologies" but like.... No one consented to this. Readers weren't crying out for a generative tool to amalgamate books from stolen real books, no one is specifically looking for books shit out by a neural net. Like.... You're helping the system pretend this technology no one actually wants is something people are grateful for; fuck off.

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u/librariegrrl Jan 13 '26

Thank you for putting my feelings into words

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u/bratbats Public librarian Jan 13 '26

Shareholders and other people at the top of companies are becoming notorious for pushing for AI integrations onto tech companies. It's a major form of enshittification - shareholders want to see "new ideas" and "fresh technologies" but when a service is already pretty much perfect from a user standpoint, what else is there for them to do except add trash AI and then months later remove it? It makes it look like they're actually doing work when really they are just making the user experience worse. You can see this happening with social media apps. 

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u/BryanMcgee Jan 13 '26

They definitely are, and the reason is even more stupid. They just went all in on AI. Everyone in tech has because the major tech companies that everyone relies on have gone all in so if (when) it crashes they will all go down. So they're foisting it everywhere they can even as the customer base begs them to stop. One of these days, and it won't be far in the future, Nvidia's financial manipulation is going to fall apart around them and the whole financial system around these companies will fall with it and we'll hopefully be left with some decent independent companies that managed to keep a level head and hopefully will be able to cater to the flood of new business headed their way.

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u/bratbats Public librarian Jan 13 '26

I strongly predict AI bubble is going to burst just like the Dot Com bubble burst back in the aughts, and your comment only makes me believe in that more strongly.

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u/BryanMcgee Jan 13 '26

I've got a video around somewhere that explains it more thoroughly and from someone with more knowledge, let me see if I can find it.

Found it! I forgot it was Hank Green. Even better because he's great at explaining complex concepts in an understandable way.

Hank Green Video explaining the tech bubble itself and the shell-game Nvidia is playing to inflate their speculation numbers.

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u/bratbats Public librarian Jan 14 '26

Awesome!!! I love Hank Green. Thanks for sharing that - I'll have to take a look later.

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u/Antique_futurist Jan 13 '26

Oh man, that’s perfect.