I work at a public library and what people come in asking about AI has changed completely in the last eighteen months

I have worked at a public library for fourteen years. Part of my role is helping people find and evaluate information and navigate new technologies. I want to share what I am actually seeing from the public because I think it is different from the picture you get from tech media.

Eighteen months ago people occasionally asked about AI in an abstract curious way. Now I get specific questions every day. A retired woman who wants to know if the email she received from her bank was written by an AI. A job seeker who wants to know if it is okay to use AI to write his cover letter and whether employers can tell. A small business owner who wants to know why the AI tool she bought is giving her wrong information about local regulations.

The gap between where ordinary people are with this technology and where the public conversation assumes they are is very large. Most people are not asking whether AI will achieve superintelligence. They are asking practical, immediate questions and often getting answers from sources that are either too technical or too sensational to be useful.