The Human Side of LibrarianAI
Remember your first day at a new job? New co-workers, new software, new workflows, new water cooler... No matter how smart or skilled you are, there will be a learning curve. This week, our LibrarianAI is enjoying its “first day” at Legible in a limited beta. It’s about to experience its own learning curve (but no water coolers!)
We’ve already given you a quick introduction to our newest “hire” at Legible, in which we let the Librarian speak for itself. Now, before we send our new LibrarianAI into the world, we wanted to also tell you about the human side of our AI and a bit about what you might expect when we open it to all of our readers.
As you might guess, LibrarianAI is primarily designed to assist our readers in navigating the vast catalog of books on Legible.com. Much like a librarian in your neighborhood library, LibrarianAI can suggest related topics to explore, recommend books based on your reading history, and even help with research and citations.
And just like a human librarian who might be new to the job, LibrarianAI is constantly learning. Our LibrarianAI is still in training, continually refining its skills and algorithms to enhance the reader’s experience. As you interact with it and provide feedback, LibrarianAI utilizes that information to improve its recommendations and search results. Over time, it gets better at anticipating your needs and presenting relevant content.
While the engine for LibrarianAI is impressive, the most vital aspect of our LibrarianAI is not the technology, LibrarianAI is powered by people. Without humans, the LibrarianAI is simply the overseer of a collection of data stripped down to its essential elements.
It is the authors who craft words on virtual pages and bind them with ideas, plots, characters, and insights into manuscripts. It is the publishers who pick up those manuscripts, so they are not confined to desk drawers and hard drives. The curators at bookstores like Legible bring those books that might have remained stacked in warehouses and on virtual shelves into the light of day. Finally, the developers and machine learning specialists take the curation team’s insights and recommendations to heart. They instruct the LibrarianAI to consider that information and then look deep inside the text to understand it better.
But of course, nothing of substance can happen without you, the reader. Readers are what make books worth writing, worth publishing, worth curating. As I like to say, books need readers like roads need travelers, otherwise, what’s the point? Readers give books a reason for being.
The key to any new technology and its implementation comes down to how it serves us, the people. Essentially, it is your need for a book that makes the LibrarianAI’s job worth doing. It is your conversations with the LibrarianAI that help it understand what’s important to you and show you books you actually want to read, need to read, and love to read.
So let me take this moment to thank you, in advance, for every question, suggestion, and insight you might have for us, and for LibrarianAI. We so look forward to bringing you something beautiful!
