Hoyt Long
Hoyt Long
Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Japanese Literature and Digital Studies
University of Chicago
Research Project
Humanistic AI: Reimagining Humanistic Pursuits in the Age of Generated Media
Project Team:
2025 – 2027
Jason Salavon, Narrative Frame (Illuminated Manuscripts 1), 2019 (detail). Courtesy of the artist.
Key Question
How should scholars in humanities fields evaluate and harness the potential of generative AI?
Project Summary
An interdisciplinary group of researchers will convene for a series of workshops focused on generative models, laying the conceptual and methodological foundations for a new approach to humanities research and related cultural activity in the age of AI.
With the emergence of large language and other generative AI models, every field of study is having to wrestle with their impact on its established disciplinary habits and practices. In humanities fields, the task is especially urgent given how rapidly these technologies have embedded themselves in the processes and systems that mediate creative activity and knowledge production. The Humanistic AI project starts from the premise that the most productive response to these technologies is to address them head on. The project will bring together specialists from multiple domains of intellectual inquiry (literature, linguistics, philosophy, sociology, computer science) to collectively identify the challenges generative models present to these domains. Participants will seek to articulate a strategic vision for how to evaluate these models on our own disciplinary terms; to potentially enlist them as collaborators in humanistic research; and to inform their development and deployment beyond academia. In a series of meetings held over two years, we will produce a set of case studies that model this vision, and thus help to lay the conceptual and methodological ground for a rethinking of humanities research and humanistic pursuits in the wake of generative models.
Research Team
Chris Kennedy
Maria Antoniak
David Bamman
Eamon Duede
Ari Holtzman
Atoosa Kasirzadeh
Atoosa Kasirzadeh
Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Software & Societal Systems
Carnegie Mellon University
Mikayla Kelley
Cody Kommers
Mina Lee
Laura K. Nelson
Nanyun (Violet) Peng
Jason Salavon
Richard Jean So
Richard Jean So
Rhodes Chair in Digital Humanities and Associate Professor of English
Duke University
Ted Underwood
Anubav Vasudevan
Matthew Wilkens
Project Narrative
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
New UChicago Project Explores How Humanities Can Advance AI Research
New UChicago Project Explores How Humanities Can Advance AI Research
How should humanistic scholars evaluate and harness the potential of generative AI? In what ways can they contribute to its development?
An interdisciplinary group of researchers is convening at the ...
Reimagining Humanistic Pursuits in the Age of Generated Media
Discussion
Reimagining Humanistic Pursuits in the Age of Generated Media
Participants at this roundtable discussed the challenges and opportunities that generative models present to various fields of study.
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
New UChicago Project Explores How Humanities Can Advance AI Research
New UChicago Project Explores How Humanities Can Advance AI Research
How should humanistic scholars evaluate and harness the potential of generative AI? In what ways can they contribute to its development?
An interdisciplinary group of researchers is convening at the ...
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Reimagining Humanistic Pursuits in the Age of Generated Media
Discussion
Reimagining Humanistic Pursuits in the Age of Generated Media
Participants at this roundtable discussed the challenges and opportunities that generative models present to various fields of study.
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