RD 115 Evans: Home
Artificial Intelligence, Research, and Information Literacy for Reading 115
Generative AI
Generative AI uses large language models (LLM) and algorithms for predictive text generation, like a calculator for words. Free versions like ChatGPT use the searches you do to build their LLM. The connection between AI tools and search tools like Google is improving, but currently, there is a big disconnect between AI text results and published sources.
Ethical considerations: Learning
Key question: how does the text enhance your learning?
What are your own insights? your new connections, or knowledge that is new to you?
Ethical considerations: Environmental costs
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The Carbon Footprint of Artificial intelligenceArticle. PCC login required.
"The researchers found the six-billion-parameter language model emitted more CO2 than the average U.S. home does in a year, even though it was only trained to 13% of the time it would take to reach full training capacity. If the model was trained to completion, the Allen Institute for AI estimates a full training run would “emit about an order of magnitude more emissions.”
Ethical considerations: Academic responsibility
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Citations for AI generated textMLA style. If you do use AI generated text, you should give a citation for it
Information Literacy: Evaluate for disinformation
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Don’t let confirmation bias narrow your perspectiveGraphic: definition of confirmation bias
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Research Shows AI is Often BiasedGraphic: "Ridding AI and machine learning of bias involves taking their many uses into consideration" . Examples of types of bias
Information Literacy: Examine claims
Determine what claims are being made, and then:
- Pause, and check your understanding
- Check your emotional reaction
- Verify claims (or facts) quickly with lateral searching
- Identify published sources (paid for, and edited)
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How journalists can use "triangulation"Graphic: Triangulating Journalistic Sources
Investigative journalists are doing paid work.Journalism requires a team of people, like reporters, editors, managers, production engineers -
Learning to VerifyArticle.
Ask first: "Do we know what we are looking at?"
Determine the three contexts: of the claim (larger story?); of the source (reputation?); of yourself (your own knowlege).
Information literacy: How sources work
Practical Applications: Organize, Highlight
Useful strategies for using generative AI in a RD 115 class include:
- Collect search terms
- Collect ideas to narrow a topic
- Confirm general knowledge which you recognize as factual
Practical Applications: Verify
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The Need for Improved AI Literacy in Higher EdArticle.
"AI-generated responses can contain fabricated citations or misleading information....Probabilistic reasoning: AI tools do not generate absolute truths but instead predict likely answers based on patterns." -
News Literacy ProjectArticle.
Six Things to Know About AI.
"Any viral image you can't verify through a reliable source--using a reverse image search, for example-- should be approached with skepticism." -
Sycophancy. . . .AI is Not Your FriendArticle.
Login may be required.
"AI now looks to be its own kind of justification machine—more convincing, more efficient, and therefore even more dangerous than social media."
Questions?
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Ask a librarian!Pam Kessinger, Research and Instruction Librarian, at the Rock Creek campus.
This work by PCC Library is licensed by Portland Community College under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.- Last Updated: Jun 9, 2025 3:15 PM
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