Before You Use It: Evaluating AI Tools

AI tools can look polished and useful, but how do you know whether a tool aligns with how you want to use AI?

In this hands-on AI Literacy workshop, we’ll explore AI-enabled libraries and research tools and ask practical questions about what they do, how they handle your data, what other AI systems may be working behind the scenes, and what their limitations are. Participants will investigate real tools and consider issues such as privacy, transparency, accuracy, and data use alongside their own values and priorities. Participants will investigate real AI tools and see how easy (or difficult) it can be to find reliable answers about how they work. You’ll leave with a simple set of questions you can use to make more informed decisions about the AI tools you encounter.

This program is part of SJSU Library’s How Can AI Be Used for Social Good? 2026-2027 series, hosted at the AI Center for Civic and Social Good in King Library.

RSVP: https://forms.gle/NK51SmEsWbYz658R6

Facilitator Bio:
Alison Throckmorton is an MLIS Candidate (‘26) and 2025–2026 MLIS+ AI Literacy Fellow at San José State University Library. Her work focuses on AI governance, transparency, and responsible AI adoption in libraries, with research exploring how libraries can make emerging technologies more understandable, accountable, and sustainable.