AI training on books and search engine changes spark anxiety over information access
Users on Mastodon debate the future of research and knowledge preservation as AI companies train on published works and Google shifts search priorities.
What to know
- Users express concerns that AI companies training on published books and Google's shift toward AI-generated answers threaten traditional research and information access.
- Responses range from personal archival efforts to institutional solutions, including library science careers as a form of resistance to automated knowledge management.
- The conversation reflects deeper anxiety about knowledge preservation and who controls access to information in an AI-integrated information landscape.
The dispute Whether individual archival efforts or institutional/systemic approaches are the more effective or appropriate response to information preservation threats. · positions read across 4 posts and comments
Personal and individual archival (physical media, PDFs, traditional research skills) is the practical response to information preservation concerns.
-
“I only signed up for vinyl archival. (I also have an apocalypse drive of books and information on pdf.)”
love@thistlenfern.org · Mastodon
Institutional library work and organized resistance to automated systems offers a more systemic solution than individual efforts.
-
“Study library science. Work in an actual library. Keep being an absolute asshole about not letting the [people actually running the] machines have the last word, ever.”
angelastella@treehouse.systems · Mastodon
Challenges to the premise that Google Search or current information infrastructure is uniquely irreplaceable should be part of the discussion.
-
“There is the assumption that Google Search has value, that it has high value, and that it cannot be adequately replicated, so its loss is a permanent loss to humanity.”
gcvsa@mstdn.plus · Mastodon ↗
“I am the generation that has learned to use a card catalog. I can do archival searching, and annotating my own books. I am just in a place of general anxiety about the future of accessing, saving, and sharing information.”
TarkabarkaHolgy@ohai.social, Mastodon user · Mastodon · Aug 14
TarkabarkaHolgy@ohai.social Mastodon user raising concernslove@thistlenfern.org Mastodon commenterangelastella@treehouse.systems Mastodon commentergcvsa@mstdn.plus Mastodon commenter
The record 1 articles and posts · last 30 days
What people are saying 4 voices from 1 site · verbatim
- Aug 16
-
G
RE: https:// ohai.social/@TarkabarkaHolgy/1 17100845697265165 There are more fundamental questions than those which are being asked here. There is, first of all, the assumption that Yahoo! Search…oh wait, no, I meant Altavista Search…wait, no, that not it either, I really meant to say that Google Search has value, that it has high value, and that…
- Aug 15
-
RE: https:// ohai.social/@TarkabarkaHolgy/1 17100845697265165 I don't know about y'all. My program so far is: Quit computing as a job. Will still use computers when appropriate. (Done many years ago. All my former knowledge is obsolete now, yay!) Finish high school. (Ongoing. Yes, I'm a dropout.) Study library science. Be a goddamn Luddite about…
-
L
RE: https:// ohai.social/@TarkabarkaHolgy/1 17100845697265165 Dunno, I only signed up for vinyl archival. (I also have an apocalypse drive of books and information on pdf.) The burned the Alexandria Library too. Save what you want.
-
T
No, Mastodon, I am serious: If AI companies are shredding books And Google is nerfing search engines to make you ask AI What do we do? Like, I am the generation that has learned to use a card catalog. I can do archival searching, and annotating my own books. I am just in a place of general anxiety about the future of accessing, saving, and sharing…