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Banned Books

A guide to book restrictions and removals in the United States
Some states are using AI to look for keywords to flag books as "sexual or pornographic" in order to remove books from the library collection. Groups and individuals who challenge books and advocate for their removal rarely read the books. They use tools like AI to flag materials. The issue is that open AI often fails to accurately flag books. 

As book-banning in America hits a 21-year-high with hundreds of books targeted and pulled from shelves across the country, one Iowa country turned to artificial intelligence to assist school officials in meeting the state’s new laws limiting what material is allowed in schools. The district says it first compiled a list of commonly challenged books, and then used the AI tool ChatGPT to scan that list for books with descriptions of sex. But by starting with a list of quote “commonly challenged” books, the district was already leaning into the right-wing ideology that has targeted books that deal with LGBTQ issues, slavery, white supremacy, and sexuality. “Artificial intelligence really isn’t the main problem here,” says NBC News senior reporter, and former librarian, Brandy Zadrozny. “The book banning is the real problem.”