Hallucinations in Artificial Intelligence and Human Misinformation: Librarians' Perspectives on Implications for Scholarly Publication

Résumé

In scholarly publishing, AI is expected to raise productivity and make access to knowledge more widespread but this has come with anomalies known as AI hallucination, representing a new wave of human misinformation undermining the validity of scholarly publication. This study examines librarians' perceptions on implications of hallucinations in artificial intelligence and human misinformation for scholarly publication. The study adopts a descriptive research survey design. The population for this study consists of librarians in Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was used to elicit responses from librarians that are on social media platforms, then snowball sampling was used to get to librarians that were difficult to reach using general social media platforms where they could be found. The instrument for data collection is a structured questionnaire. 97 responses were found valid for analysis. The data collected from the questionnaire wereanalyzed using mean and standard deviation. The study discovered that librarians possess knowledge of both AI hallucinations and human-driven misinformation. Librarians also strongly perceive that these significantly compromise the credibility, reliability, and overall integrity of scholarly publications. Librarians face considerable challenges in mitigating misinformation, including lack of specialized AI training, absence of established verification guidelines, rapid technological advancements, limited institutional support, and difficulty verifying printed and unpublished works. The study also discovered that librarians have adopted several strategies to curb AI hallucinations and human misinformation, including training on AI technologies and raising awareness about the development of AI tools for adaptation, set guidelines to address AI hallucination. It was recommended that the knowledge of librarians be strengthened through ongoing professional development programs, specialized workshops, and by AI literacy. This will help librarians stay updated on new trends in misinformation and better educate researchers and students.