Munoz, R. (2024, October 15). The problem with “perfect” answers: GenAI and academic research tools. Educause Review. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2024/10/the-problem-with-perfect-answers-genai-and-academic-research-tools

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Mini-Review

This is so clever: a must-read. Roberta Munoz, Adjunct Liaison Librarian at NYU, writes about how expecting the perfect answer to emerge from Google or GAI overlooks the inherent and intellectually essential messiness of the academic search process. It’s the dead ends and the unexpected or contrary finds that spark new ideas and reshape questions. We’re not going to find these when algorithms are curating our search results for us or hallucinating a neat answer. We’re going to have to become pushier, more active in our search behaviour.

Weirdly, I was just talking on a vaguely similar topic when shoe shopping recently. I don’t shoe shop much; I’m not fond of shopping. But I was chatting with the salespeople about how you come in with a shoe in mind, something similar to what you’ve had in the past, but you end up seeing other shoe options and discover that actually those are the shoes that you’d like to buy.

You’ve got to get out there and see the options. You have to hunt.

(Mostly with shoes I’m not that interested. Ideas, on the other hand…)

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Image: screenshot taken by me on my phone. Other elements via Canva.

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