An Agenda on Generative AI for the Digital Humanities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.2532-8816/25557Abstract
The transformative impact of generative Artificial Intelligence compels us, as the Italian Digital Humanities community, to establish a strategic agenda for collective reflection. In this op-ed, I propose a contribution in this direction by identifying three interconnected lines of analysis: (1) the theory of generative AI, which requires explanatory approaches not reducible to mathematical-computational explanations alone, incorporating functional descriptions and intentional notions to understand the emergent linguistic and cognitive properties of Large Language Models; (2) AI as a socio-cultural technology, considering LLMs as models of cultural memory that in turn act back upon cultural systems themselves; (3) AI as a method in humanistic research, which profoundly reorganizes epistemic workflows by enabling the operationalization of nearly every aspect of research, from corpus construction to the production of hermeneutic interpretations. Generative AI systems represent an epistemological revolution that demands a reconceptualization of fundamental assumptions about meaning, culture, knowledge, and interpretation. The methodological tradition of Italian Digital Humanities can play an essential critical role in developing protocols for controlled use and practices of cooperation between AI and human agency, guiding us also as scholars who bear social responsibility.
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