Professor Şahin Albayrak from the Technical University of Berlin is preparing a project titled "Center of World Knowledge: The Future European Library," which will merge libraries with artificial intelligence (AI) to summarize information and present it to readers.

Albayrak, in his statements to Anadolu Agency (AA), discussed the future transformation of libraries with AI, what awaits librarians and his work in this area. He mentioned that he has been working for many years on designing and developing scalable AI solutions, providing a useful software stack for various experimental tools. He emphasized his goal to support societies with AI for industry and comfortable living.

Albayrak noted that in addition to AI studies in "autonomous, driverless vehicles," "future workplaces" and "health," he is also conducting AI studies for libraries. He highlighted that their current work aims to bring about significant changes in physical access to libraries.

Stating that libraries generally provide information to readers with an open-shelf system and serve as repositories of knowledge for countries, Albayrak said that printed works would gradually digitize, and there might no longer be books on library shelves.

Albayrak mentioned that access to books, information analysis and librarianship would change in libraries, stating, "With our work, we see that firstly, books will be on hard disks rather than shelves, and everything will be presented digitally."

"Secondly, by specifying which information we want through AI, the system will summarize the data for us. Thirdly, the profession of librarianship will transition to another dimension. Librarians will learn AI and keep the data up to date. Information on a subject will be summarized from many sources through AI and presented to the user."

Born in the Nazımiye district of Tunceli in eastern Türkiye, Albayrak completed middle and high school with honors before going to Germany with his brother in 1979.

Albayrak, who graduated with honors from the Technical University of Berlin and received his doctorate from the same university, went on to work at the AI laboratory of Stanford University in the United States and became a professor at the age of 30. Returning to the Technical University of Berlin, he took over the AI laboratory jointly operated by the university and Deutsche Telekom, leading Germany's $2.6 billion AI research for COVID-19.

Albayrak now develops AI systems for health, transportation, workplace safety and libraries in Germany and various countries.

Copyright laws

Albayrak said that the complete transformation of libraries with AI could take another five to six years. Emphasizing that archives are the memory of states and should be kept up to date, Albayrak stated that digitizing information in libraries and making it available to the whole society is a more sensible policy.

Albayrak said that the project he is working on, where leading universities in Europe are collaborating on AI hardware, has not yet reached its conclusion. He said that the outputs of the scientific project would shed light on many issues and could also illuminate world libraries.

Albayrak highlighted that copyright law applications would also be affected by this change, stating, "Countries' copyright laws will change with AI. New payment models for authors and works will emerge. I might not buy the entire book and pay only for the pages I need. AI systems will pay authors in different amounts."

After 10 years

Albayrak emphasized that they foresee AI becoming functional in everyday life in many parts of the world in about 10 years. He said that even now, the shelves of libraries at prestigious universities like Stanford and Yale are emptying, and much data is becoming digital.

Albayrak commented: "No one can stop the AI process; this is the future. For a while, we may see books on shelves, but many things will be digitized, and information will be accessed through AI. The biggest advantage of digitized books is that you can access them 24/7. Even if the library closes, you can access the data. In 10 years, libraries will be equipped with AI."

Pointing out that the definition of the librarian profession would change with the development of AI, Albayrak said that librarians would enter records of newly published books and ensure their integration into AI. He added, "AI will not eliminate librarianship, but librarians will have to learn new things."

Albayrak also commented on the future of AI, saying: "Transferring information to digital is not AI. The AI of the future will go even further and will consist of two structures. One is to chat, and the other is to collect information and provide a comprehensive analysis of data. Users will quickly receive information and a well-organized analysis while working with AI. This working method will be efficient for every profession."