Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 38, No. 18.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
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        Date: 2024-05-30 06:59:28+00:00
        From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
        Subject: the continuing problem of 'impact'

I refer to that event in Oxford, 'The Impact of Generative AI on the Digital
Humanities: Disruption in Research and Education", reported just an hour
or so earlier.

No one, I suppose, could argue against the wisdom of taking
precautionary measures in light of signs indicating the explosion of a
nearby volcano, say, or the arrival of a tsunami. But this is not what
we're facing with AI. Accepting the rhetoric of 'impact' renders those
who witlessly accept it passive victims. Of course it's prudent to stay
aware of what the tech giants and their fellow travellers are up to, but
this is not the same thing as assuming its inevitability, as if it were
a force of nature rather than a very human project. Do we not have a
responsibility, as hackers to hack for the good, as scholars to keep a
clear head and write and lecture accordingly, asking Lenin's
question--"What is to be done?--and coming up with persuasive arguments?

Comments?

Yours,
WM
--
Willard McCarty,
Professor emeritus, King's College London;
Editor, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews;  Humanist
www.mccarty.org.uk


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