History and Artificial Intelligence

This element reveals the key role of making sense of the past in artificial intelligence.

This Element looks at artificial intelligence (AI) through the triple lens of history: histories are made about AI, humans use AI to make histories, and histories are made by AI. It argues that seeing AI through history, and understanding principles shaping both, is critical for the future of the past.This Element looks at artificial intelligence (AI) through the triple lens of history: histories are made about AI, humans use AI to make histories, and histories are made by AI. It explains how working with data from the past is critical to AI fields such as machine learning and looks at ways that AI algorithms – artificial historians – can be designed and improved. Examples of how AI can support historical research and education introduce a broader theoretical discussion on the value of historical reasoning for the design, review, and deployment of technologies. Harms arising from current AI technologies and AI research and development are considered, as well as the complexities of recognising AI in authorship and ethical frameworks and understandings of global interactions. It argues that seeing AI through the lens of history, and vice versa, and understanding the principles that shape both is critical for the future of the past.