*In this interview, 2025 Library of Congress Junior Fellow Noelia Alvarez reflects on her experience working on the Expanding AI Community Engagement Project in the Library’s Digital Strategy Directorate. *This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Leah: Hi Noelia! It’s great to have you on our team this summer. Could you tell us what your role is here at the Library, and what you are working on?

Noelia: I am a Junior Fellow in the Digital Strategy Directorate working on the Expanding AI Community Engagement Project.

My project explores AI’s role in research, while incorporating the framework of social epistemology. I chose to focus on research because of the prevalent use of AI tools I am seeing in academia. I would also like to note that AI development is fundamentally at the academic level. Its origin, setting aside any conceptual notion of it, resides within research institutions. There is a real epistemic trust in using AI, and I thought it would be interesting to actually look inward to the heart of where this trust arose. I also looked into traditional methods of historical analysis, digital text analysis, and information literacy to see what lessons we can learn in how those disciplines approach data. Exploring different methodologies in the ways we acquire knowledge is a start to addressing the epistemic risks that AI presents.

Leah: Tell us a bit about your background and journey. What professional or educational experiences led you to apply for this fellowship?

Noelia: I am from Evansville, Indiana, and I am currently a student at Purdue University. First, there is a program at my university called Boilers Go to D.C. that inspired me to pursue public policy-related internships. My mentors were truly the best part, because of all of them provided career advice and pathways to landing my first internship in D.C. Second, my personal research experience through the Institute of Information Literacy (IIL) shaped my interests in how I wanted to participate in the conversation about AI. My professors in the IIL emphasize student engagement with faculty as well as reflecting on your work in research. I thought the Library of Congress was a perfect place to take the skills I learned in information literacy, and I was happy to see how well they translated here.

Leah: What in your background, coursework, or job experience has been useful for your work on this project?

Noelia: I am an Artificial Intelligence major through Purdue University’s Department of Philosophy, while pursuing a minor in Information Studies from the School of Information Studies. My coursework has set me up for success in understanding and approaching ethical concerns about the prevalent use of AI. My degree also requires students to gain technical skills through some computer science courses like Python and discrete math. Even my electives have helped me in my interest about historical methods in the digital age. I took a Roman Literature class which really opened up a new perspective for me about how we gather sources and the ways we tell each other history. My mentors and professors back in West Lafayette have always fostered an environment for engagement in the classroom.

Leah: My internship experiences also let me have a foot in the door in public policy. I had a really cool project manager last summer at a think tank who would let me explore what goals I wanted to achieve in the realm of tech policy. This, of course, has brought me to where I am today.

Noelia: I will say the most impactful people in life, though, are my parents and my little sisters. They have always encouraged me to pursue knowledge with curiosity, which set the foundation for me to study philosophy. Even the little things have shaped my project. I have an irrational fear of driving, and my sister would pick up my books from our local library so I could effectively finish my work. Thank you, sis!

Leah: Is there anything about working on this project that you have found surprising or unexpected?

Noelia: I read some philosophical papers surrounding arguments about a right to an explanation. Transparency is an important component of AI regulation. As Meredith Broussard states in her book Artificial Unintelligence, data is socially constructed. Therefore, one way to achieve transparency is to evaluate how data is collected. But what exactly do we mean by transparency outside of that? The everyday person doesn’t have a technical background in AI, so I started finding papers discussing the internal social workings around technologies. Through this research, I came across philosopher Kate Vredenburgh’s informed self-advocacy.

Vredenburgh states: “Because of the asymmetric relations of authority and distributed knowledge within hierarchies, individuals have an interest in being able to engage in informed self- advocacy.” I think this really helped me build off of Dr. Ruha Benjamin’s work about knowledge hierarchies and creativity for my project. During my internship, Dr. Ruha Benjamin’s work influenced me to think about knowledge hierarchies in academia, and I think Vredenburgh’s informed self-advocacy also allows us to reflect about power in public and private institutions.

Leah: Tell us a bit about how this work connects with your career goals. Is this experience helping you to further develop or refine your goals and interests?

Noelia: I would like a career in public service, but this experience at the Library influenced me a bit to stay in academia. One of my favorite parts of my fellowship was getting to know the other Junior Fellows and their willingness to help me if I needed it. The Library’s Junior Fellow coordinators encourage you to get to know your Fellows and other departments in the Library. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to reach out to a Classics and Medieval Reference Librarian. We set up a meeting virtually, and he gave me amazing advice in how I can further my readings in Latin. Although it only lasted for nine weeks, it was such a great opportunity to read papers and books about AI and philosophy over the summer. This was my dream internship, and I couldn’t ask for a better experience. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be a professor one day.

Leah: Based on your experience in this fellowship, are there any things you are going to focus on getting out of your next educational experience? Has this experience shaped your ideas about your future work and educational program?

Noelia: I had so many conversations about this with my co-Fellows. Many of my peers recently graduated undergrad or are currently finishing their master’s degree. Wherever I go, the experience here will always be applicable, whether it be through a program in public policy or becoming a professor. I do know when I return back to campus, I want to continue being part of research.