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AI, history and historians: A panel discussion

There are few bigger, and more pressing, topics today than the current and future impact of Generative AI. Nowhere is this more so than in Higher Education. The opportunities and challenges of AI are relevant to all those engaged in teaching and research. But each discipline also has distinctive questions and concerns relating to life with AI.

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Logo for the Royal Historical Society

This panel raises those questions and concerns with reference to the teaching and research of history in Higher Education. It brings together an international panel of historians and digital specialists to consider history's future, as well as the history of artificial intelligence. Our speakers reflect on the impact of GenAI for history; current research on its implications for teaching and learning; and whether histories of previous technological change can better prepare us to accommodate AI alongside the established skills and practices of historical study.

Topics:

  • Challenges and opportunities of GenAI for historical teaching and assessment.
  • Implications for AI in the archives and for sources.
  • Histories of technological innovation and change.
  • Generational approaches and attitudes to AI among historians.
  • The role of learning technicians in supporting historians.
  • The ethics of AI for university teachers and students of history.

Speakers

Jane Winters (Chair - Professor of Digital Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and Vice-President, Publications, for the Royal Historical Society); Helen Hastie (Professor of Human-Robot Interaction at the University of Edinburgh and Head of School of Informatics); Matthew L. Jones (Smith Family Professor of History at Princeton University), and Anna-Maria Sichani (Post Doctoral Research Associate at the Digital Humanities Research Hub, School of Advanced Study, University of London). 

The event will be introduced by Dr Adam Budd (Senior Lecturer in Cultural History, School of History, Classics and Archaeology), Royal Historical Society's Secretary for Education. He heads the Society's work on the implications of AI for historical research and teaching.

Dr Budd's staff profile