This Guide focuses on the digital transformation and innovation in Digital Humanities (DH) research and scholarship together with Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a catalyst for scalable advancements.
The rapid evolution of this field necessitates frequent updates as well as information emendations in order for us to remain fully aware of its many facets. Consequently, this guide will regularly monitor and include recent trends of this field so that we may network with the AI and DH communities of learners and scholars.
An essential companion guide to consult is the USC Research Guide, "Using Generative AI in Research", by Benjamin Hall, Mike Jones, Clarissa Moreno, and Michaela Ullmann.
I invite you to communicate with me, Danielle Mihram, dmihram@usc.edu, if you would like to find information on AI within the DH domain that would help you in your teaching and research.
Additional pages that further reveal the scope of AI in the DH are currently under development.
In the early 1950s, the field of “thinking machines” was given an array of names, from cybernetics to automata theory to complex information processing.
AI's roots span back to the 1950s when Alan Turing first published his article, Computer Machinery and Intelligence (Mind, Volume LIX, Issue 236, October 1950, pp. 433–460), which later became a tool to measure computers' intelligence. In 1952, computer engineer (at IBM) Arthur Samuel created the first computer program to learn to play checkers. He popularized the term "machine learning" in 1959. AI has slowly developed ever since.
The field of artificial intelligence (AI) is considered to have originated in 1956 at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence (DSRPAI):
John McCarthy, a Dartmouth College professor, recognized that researchers didn’t focus on the potential for computers to possess intelligence beyond simple behaviors. So, he decided to organize a group to clarify and develop ideas about thinking machines.
He approached the Rockefeller Foundation to request funding for a summer seminar at Dartmouth for 10 participants. In 1955, he formally proposed the project, along with friends and colleagues Marvin Minsky (Harvard University), Nathaniel Rochester (IBM Corporation), and Claude Shannon (Bell Telephone Laboratories).
The DSRPA seminar was based on the conjecture that, “Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves.”
At that seminar McCarthy coined the term "artificial intelligence" (AI)
In 1969 Marvi Minsky won the Turing Award for his “central role in creating, shaping, promoting and advancing the field of artificial intelligence
While there is not a single definitive date, the integration AI into the Digital Humanities (DH) is generally considered to have started gaining ground in the late 1990s and early 2000s as computational power increased and machine learning techniques became more sophisticated, allowing for applications like text analysis, image recognition, data extraction, data visualization, and pattern identification across vast amounts of digital data within humanities research and scholarship.
Such AI techniques and applications allow for the uncovering of new patterns and insights that may not be readily apparent through traditional methods, by using digital tools and methods to analyze and study aspects of art and society, human culture, history, and literature, in new ways through computational techniques like enhanced machine learning and natural language processing.
Such a methodology leverages computational power to process vast amounts of data that would be impractical for manual analysis, Ultimately, this leads to richer, more nuanced understanding of human culture across different time periods and regions.
Ethical considerations and the need for human interpretation remain crucial in this field.