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.
Mack Penner and Edward Dunsworth In his case for “steering a middle course” on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the history classroom, written partially as response to earlier pieces by each of us, Mark Humphries makes a number of points with which we agree. First among those points of agreement are the value of a historical education and… Read more »
Edward Dunsworth Two approaches dominate discussion about how professors should handle generative “artificial intelligence” in the classroom: give up or give in. Give up. Faced with a powerful new technology custom-cut for cheating, many professors are throwing up their hands in despair. This was the dominant mood of last month’s widely shared New York Magazine article. “Everyone is cheating their… Read more »
To the extent that we as historians accept as settled the first order questions about AI and instead opt to talk about nuanced details of implementation, I think we risk a very serious mistake. Here, then, I want to publicly state my view of AI and its use in history, and to do so without any qualification. I hate AI.
by Carly Ciufo “Do museum workers do human rights work?” I ask ChatGPT. The artificial intelligence’s (AI) answer is longer and, honestly, more robust than I expect:
Sean Kheraj In their 2005 article in First Monday, Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig recount the story of a remarkably prescient colleague, Peter Stearns, who “proposed the idea of a history analog to the math calculator, a handheld device that would provide students with names and dates to use on exams—a Cliolator, he called it, a play on the… Read more »
