Bots in the Library? Colleges Try AI to Help Researchers (But With Caution) - EdSurge News

The newest librarian at the University of Oklahoma is a robot. It's a chatbot, which library officials plan to add to the library's website this summer to answer some of the most common questions students come in with, as well as to help them get started with their research. The system can tackle things like "where can I print?" or "what databases do you have about biology?" Anything it can't answer gets sent to a human librarian. The bot is just one example of how college libraries and technologists are experimenting with artificial intelligence to support students and professors in their research. Algorithms may soon help them prepare their literature reviews by quickly finding the most important papers in an area, and help match researchers with peers in other disciplines doing similar work to form new collaborations.