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AI Library Workshop: Gen AI Activities

This workshop is for students or anyone who wants to learn to use Gen AI ethically, effectively, and responsibly.

Introductory Activity - "Practice with Prompts"

Type these prompts into Copilot. Read & Ask further questions.

 

1)   Why do librarians insist that we use databases for our research?

2)  Give me 10 interesting speech topics related to a social issue.

3)  How can we effectively collaborate on a group presentation and divide the work?

4)  I am driving from New York City to Chicago, what are some interesting stops?

5)  Create trivia questions on popular culture that are appropriate for elementary kids.

6)  I'm in an acting class and need a female monologue for a manic character in a modern play?

7)  Can you generate a realistic picture of the Swiss alps with cows grazing in a field?

Want to become a Prompt Engineer?

Interestingly, while some jobs may be lost due to the usage of GenAI to streamline processes like customer service and marketing there is a whole new academic discipline called "Prompt Engineering."  Job titles include Prompt Engineer or Data Scientist. 

Cybersecruity jobs should also increase in demand due to "prompt injections" which are cybersecurity attacks on Machine Learning systems whereby a hacker creates prompts to de-stabilize or "inject" errors into the system's training dataset.


The two activities below will help you create more specific prompts and evaluate Gen AI prompt results.

Activity 1 - Prompting Framework
(One of CUNY's Pro Tips is "Master the Art of Prompting")

What You Will Learn: An effective and efficient way to create prompts to get the best results with less guesswork and less waste in energy/water consumption.

Time Required: 20 Minutes

Activity 2 - Evaluating Chatbot Information

What You Will Learn: A method to evaluate information you retrieve through a Chatbot.

Time Required: 20 Minutes

Disclaimer: Librarians and others are grappling with how to best evaluate AI resources, and there is currently no simple method.

Steps:

1) Find your Gen AI "source"

  1. Choose one of the following Chatbots on the list below:
    1. Chat GPT / OpenAI
    2. Claude / Anthropic
    3. Copilot / Microsoft
    4. Gemini / Google
  2. Write a prompt or question regarding a research subject or a general question. For example:
    1. I am a college student and curious about how people are currently getting their news about political topics in the United States and whether there is research about this? OR
    2. I am a college student trying to find a job and curious about the main reasons that people are dissatisfied with their jobs in the United States?
  3. Read the result and leave your Gen AI page open.

2) Fact-check your result through the steps below: 

  1. Break down the Gen AI output and identify 3 main claims you want to verify.
  2. Open 3 other browser windows
  3. Search for other sources on Google, Wikipedia, OneSearch to verify/validate the 3 claims.
  4. Analyze the different claims of your 3 sources.
  5. Decide what is correct and potentially update your Gen AI prompt to address the hallucinations

3)  Discuss your process and any take-aways from the activity with a classmate.

Prompting Framework

BONUS - Brainstorming (Extended Activity)

What You Will Learn: Basics of AI and prompts, including how to write a good prompt to brainstorm your research topic on a Chatbot.

Time Required: 40 Minutes

BMCC Library Tutorial "Brainstorming with AI (Christopher Lopez) CC BY-SA 4.0 - Thank you to the Borough of Manhattan Community College for making this H5P module available on the Creative Commons to all of us.

Review: What Did You Learn?

Review Questions

1)  What did you find easy and difficult about these activities?

2)  What was surprising to you about your AI search results?

3)  What are the benefits of creating more sophisticated prompts?

4)  How confident are you regarding the effective use of a Gen AI Chatbot?