HIST 4805A: History of/and Artificial Intelligence
Fall 2024 – Winter 2025
Instructor: Prof. Shawn Graham
The dream of intelligent machines that can do our bidding goes back at least as far as the Greek Bronze Age; the fear of intelligent machines goes back that far as well. In this full year seminar, we will take a two-part approach to understanding the deep history of artificial intelligence.
In part one of the course (a traditional seminar) we will look at the history of ‘AI’ of various kinds, situated in the social contexts of their creation and deployment, including the more recent ‘AI’ technologies that are being rolled out across society, their social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
In part two of the course, (run on a workshop model) we will experiment with designing and deploying various ‘ai’ technologies for good instead of evil. That is to say, how can these approaches enable us to write history? Find connections? Surface meaning? Connect ideas? What does an ai-enabled historical practice look like? Nobody knows – yet. You will be amongst the first historians anywhere in the world to take these issues seriously. This means you will make meaningful contributions to historical method and theory.
NB YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE ‘TECHY’ TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS COURSE. You do have to be willing to experiment: this is how we cut through the hype and indeed the ‘bullshit’ (in the precise, philosophical meaning of the term) of ai. I value experimentation, what-ifs, and reflective practice. My background is in archaeology: we learn more about the past from broken pots than whole vessels.
Part one meets weekly, while part two is run more like a workshop with periodic check-ins and collaborative mutual aid. Grading is based on your reflection and engagement with the issues, rather than whether or not you got some kind of tech to ‘work’.
Because you are willing to experiment, to try things out, and to think about how the history of these technologies intersect with our current moment, I guarantee you that you will be better able to withstand/deploy the coming tsunami of ai-infected everything.