Audio Overview is a fun new feature of Google%u2019s NotebookLM which is getting a lot of attention right now. It generates a one-off custom podcast against content you provide, where two AI hosts start up a %u201Cdeep dive%u201D discussion about the collected content. These last around ten minutes and are very podcast, with an astonishingly convincing audio back-and-forth conversation.
NotebookLM’s automatically generated podcasts are surprisingly effective
Forbes Marketplace: The Parasite SEO Company Trying to Devour Its Host
The worst part about this? I suspect that all this insanity isn’t even a deliberate decision by Google. I believe the search ranking has gotten away from them. That Google isn’t in control of their own rankings or algorithms anymore. Too many subpar leaders in positions with way too much power, way too much complexity in the SERPs, and AI as a massive distraction for the entire search team.
GPT-fabricated scientific papers on Google Scholar
Academic journals, archives, and repositories are seeing an increasing number of questionable research papers clearly produced using generative AI. They are often created with widely available, general-purpose AI applications, most likely ChatGPT, and mimic scientific writing. Google Scholar easily locates and lists these questionable papers alongside reputable, quality-controlled research. Our analysis of a selection of questionable GPT-fabricated scientific papers found in Google Scholar shows that many are about applied, often controversial topics susceptible to disinformation: the environment, health, and computing. The resulting enhanced potential for malicious manipulation of society’s evidence base, particularly in politically divisive domains, is a growing concern.
It’s time yet again to take a look back at the memorable library stories from the past year.
Two themes dominated headlines in 2023: attacks on libraries; and the rising implications of generative artificial intelligence.
Fallout over politicians from both parties mishandling documents continued to make news early in the year.
In a peculiar bid to paint himself the victim of library policies, Kirk Cameron staged conflicts over his right-wing children’s books and related library events.
A Virginia school district, determined not to let a pandemic keep students from their summer reading, is delivering books to students via the drone company run by Alphabet.
From:
Kept Out of the Library, a School District Tries Summer Reading by Drone – The New York Times
As an array of recovery efforts launched over the past five months attest, the beloved Rio de Janeiro institution’s story is far from finished: Just two weeks after the fire, museum staffers gathered in the front of the burned building to host a temporary exhibition of surviving artifacts, and at the end of the year, Google Arts & Culture immortalized the pre-fire building in a comprehensive virtual tour. The museum even opened an exhibition in mid-January, titled When Not Everything Was Ice: New Discoveries in the Antarctic Continent, at the Museum of the Brazilian Mint, which served as the national institution’s home back in the 19th century.
Partly this is the story that we all know: Google Books has failed to live up to its promise as the company has moved away from its original mission of organizing information for people. But the particular ways that it has actually eroded, including this one, are worth documenting, because it’s easy to think that search tools that worked perfectly well a few years ago won’t have been consciously degraded.
From Sapping Attention: How badly is Google Books search broken, and why?
We’re kicking that work off today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—where Benjamin Franklin established America’s first free public library—by hosting in-person workshops for job seekers, small businesses, librarians and nonprofit leaders. Later this week, we’ll be continuing the Pennsylvania workshops in York and Erie, then heading to more states like Connecticut and Maryland. We’re looking forward to people across the country joining us at their local library to learn digital skills, from online marketing tips to how to use a spreadsheet. We’ll have plenty of Googlers available for one-on-one training and to answer your questions. Follow our events page to see when we’ll be visiting your state.
From Grow with Google is heading to libraries in all 50 states, starting today
As we limp our way into 2019, let’s take a look back at some of the notable library stories from the past year.
10. The Opioid Epidemic Continues
The abuse of narcotics has become so widespread in this country that our average life expectancy has declined as a result. The use of Narcan to treat overdoses occurring in libraries is one way we can contribute to public health.
9. More Fake News
Although political propaganda is nothing new, the growing threat of what has been dubbed “information terrorism,” aided by technological advances in the creation of bogus pieces of reporting, make our role as archivists and educators all the more important.
8. Search Engines are Bigots
The popular book Algorithms of Oppression brought to light something that librarians have long known: “Garbage In, Garbage Out” applies when it comes to aggregating information. Here’s hoping that future generations of AI can unlearn the prejudices of the past.
7. Prison Book Bannings
The majority of Republicans think that higher education is bad for the country. So it’s little wonder that efforts to provide for a literate prison populace have met stiff resistance by those in charge of the prison–industrial complex.
6. Judicial Issues Roundup
Legal cases making headlines in 2018 include: the right to repair; abandonware and Fair Use; the GSU e-reserves case; the Marakesh Treaty; Ebsco and pornography; 3D printing of guns; and moving the Copyright Office out of the Library of Congress.
Honorable Mention
Kudos to John Oliver for donating all proceeds to The Trevor Project and AIDS United from the sales of his bunny book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo.
5. A New “Fake Paper” Scandal
There was a split verdict this year over the success of an elaborate sting to publish hoaxes and other dubious scholarship in peer-reviewed humanities journals.
4. Whither Open Access
A proposed European policy that would eventually require journals to make published articles freely available and without an embargo, known as “Plan S,” has won over many Open Access advocates, although not everyone is totally on board with the idea.
3. Eschewing Fines
Several libraries made the news this year by eliminating fees for overdue books.
2. Data Breaches Fuel Privacy Concerns
The Cambridge Analytica scandal and similar exploits have led librarians to carefully examine their own data collection practices. Be on the lookout for a gradual erosion of patron privacy through new tracking mechanisms on the horizon.
1. LGBT Challenges & Drag Queen Story Hours
Amidst the backdrop of a Utah library director banning LGBTQ-themed displays and an Iowa man burning LGBTQ library books, libraries in Louisiana, Kansas, and Texas faced strong criticism for planning childrens’ programs with drag queens, prompting a reasoned blog post titled, “Appeasement Doesn’t Work.”
What was your favorite library story of 2018?
Romance writers, be forewarned, the child who leaps into her arms or the heroine who leaps into his has almost a five percent chance of ending up elsewhere, when GoogleBooks OCRs your text.
From An OCR cliche: Into his/her anus | Fill His Head First with a Thousand Questions
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