The purpose is to analyse information literacy to provide ethical insight into artificial intelligence. The methodology was based on a systematic literature review of SCOPUS, Web of Science, Library and Information Science Abstracts, and Science Direct. The results demonstrated that there are only a few studies about the topic, so there is a research opportunity about this type of literacy and its ethical aspects in the context of artificial intelligence. As a conclusion, information literacy is crucial to the development of critical thinking in technology use. Information literacy should be applied in artificial intelligence courses to discuss ethical aspects of technology.
TopIntroduction
The fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is based on the connection between machines, networks and humans (Adolphs & Epple, 2017; Almada-Lobo, 2015; Schwab, 2016). One part of I4.0 is artificial intelligence (McCarthy et al., 1956), which has improved individuals’ lives through the human-machine interaction. Despite its potential, artificial intelligence has created some ethical concerns. This technology has implications for cybersecurity and data privacy. Therefore, there is a dichotomy because artificial intelligence influences society both positively and negatively.
Artificial intelligence is a topic of research of many fields, so it can be considered multidisciplinary. The topic of this chapter is artificial intelligence in the context of Ethics, Information Science and Computer Science fields. Only a few researches have studied artificial intelligence in a multidisciplinary perspective, hence this chapter helps to fill this knowledge gap. Information Science is a useful lens, since it values the union of different knowledge.
Information Literacy is a very well-known topic in the field of Information Science. It is the ability to access, evaluate and use information to construct critical thinking. Ethics is a relevant aspect of information literacy (Vitorino & Piantola, 2011) because it guides individuals’ behavior in society. An ethical approach to information has been recognized by Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education of American College & Research Association (ACRL). This organization considers that an information literate person understands economic, legal and social aspects of information use. Furthermore, ACRL (2000) understands that information literacy helps individuals to access and use information in an ethical and legal way.
Information literacy allows people to interpret information issues in a critical way (Belluzzo, 2014; Yafushi, 2015; Ottonicar, Valentim & Feres, 2016) and it is the means through which people experience information (Demasson, Patritdge & Bruce, 2016). It helps to develop critical thinking (Grafstein, 2017), so it is a sociocultural element to allow individuals to deal with complex contexts (Lloyd, 2007).
Many countries have introduced laws and public policy focused on information literacy. However, those actions are still limited, because the obscurity of the current social system can create illusions in peoples’ minds (Slayton, 2018). The use of ethical aspects of information literacy (Vitorino & Piantola, 2011) is the first step to face the dichotomy of artificial intelligence. Professionals need to understand the consequences of artificial intelligence to society. Bostron (2016) criticizes our society and compares humans to “children who play with a bomb”.
Based on these ideas, this book chapter has the following question: how can information literacy contribute to an ethical development of artificial intelligence? The purpose of this chapter is to analyse information literacy to provide ethical insight into artificial intelligence. Furthermore, this study aims to discuss the contribution of information literacy to the ethical use of artificial intelligence and to identify authors who have researched this topic.
The chapter is structured in six sections. First, it presents the introduction, research questions and purpose of the chapter. Second, it shows the method, systematic literature review, and some quantitative results. Third, the chapter discusses artificial intelligence and its ethical issues. Fourth, a section about information literacy concepts and ethics is introduced in the literature review. Fifth, the results showed the papers retrieved and ideas of authors. In the final section, this chapter explains the conclusions, limitations and future research.