It Won’t Be Long Now! A Scene at the Bathing Beach at Port Dalhousie, Ontario,” May 2, 1930, photo by Canadian National Railways, published by the Toronto Star (Toronto Star Archives, Toronto Public Library). ActiveHistory.ca is on a hiatus for our annual summer break, with a return to daily posts in mid-august. Thank you to all our contributors, guest writers,… Read more »
talkie’s poor representation of history is a side effect of a larger problem. The model was conceptually built as an experimental tool to see if language models can accurately predict the future, also known as “forecasting.” The blog post assertively claims the models predictive capabilities, yet is devoid of evidence enabling researchers to reproduce their experiment. The version that could serve serious research is gated behind compute, and is the same version released with no guardrails at all.
Nastasha Sartore Earlier this year, over forty people logged in to Zoom to attend a CHA webinar titled “Generative AI and the Practice of History.” Introduced as a “show and tell” for AI tools and strategies, the webinar included a panel of three expert historians who each presented on a distinct topic related to agentic AI, the tech that’s been… Read more »
By Sean Graham This week, I talk with Cody Groat, author of Always Part of the Land: The Federal Commemoration of Indigenous Histories. We discuss the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada‘s approach to Indigenous history, the role of federal commemorations in colonialism, and the power of commemorations. We also chat about Board members’ influence on commemorations, how public… Read more »
Felicia Gabriele The expression, “May you live in interesting times,” seems on its face, pleasant enough. Resembling a well-wish, its sunny exterior deftly cloaks the dark, cavernous depths within. To live in interesting times, is quite simply, to be cursed. To teach American History in interesting times, is, well… akin to having a staring contest with the evilest of evil… Read more »
By Amelia Palacios, Molly Blake, Jenny McBurney and Kirsten Delegard; co-founders of Save Our Signs On the corner of Sixth and Market streets in Philadelphia sits a contested site at the heart of the origin story Americans tell one another. Nearly two decades ago, this particular National Park Service (NPS) site was the focal point for heated debates about the… Read more »
