I've used AI for similar things. It's very good at transcription and translation and summaries of texts you give it. It does, however, have its limitations for some historical tasks. For example, I've been looking for the source of a half-remembered quote from something I'd read 20 years ago, about Japanese-American relations. I remember the gist of the quote and plugged it in to both Chat-GPT and Claude and both confidently gave me specific sources that were incorrect. So, it's not quite ready for primetime as a research assistant. (In AI's favor, I'm beginning to think the quote doesn't exist, that it was something I thought up myself and attributed to my reading. But, still, the answers were hallucinations.)
You can't really use it yet for deep drill downs in research, as a substitute for doing the reading yourself. It'll give you a better-than-wikipedia summary of a topic, but it lacks the nuance and depth of really good historical research.
If we just focus on the benefits, I think there are a lot AI models can help with (as the examples you brought up in the article). It's definitely helping me when approaching sources in languages I don't speak, to make better sense of them. Even if I have to check plenty of details afterwards.
This is impressive stuff... hard to shake the "depressingly good," though. I'm not sure why. It's not a conscious expectation of automation. But seeing historical analysis this good (heck, even the transcription and translation) from an AI... dread, it makes me feel dread.
Loved getting a glimpse into the book, to say nothing of the future of doing and teaching history.
Since the early days of ChatGPT, I've imagined what it would have been like to have an LLM transcribe and search all the diaries of school teachers I was trying to absorb. Since I never came close to reading them all myself (it would have taken far more time than I had to write my dissertation), having a tool to search and find references to specific events or books would have rescued what seemed an interesting project.
Tim Lee wrote apiece and did a podcast with Nathan Lambert about how post-training models for narrow purposes are where the action will be, at least in the near future. Your tool is nice evidence for that thesis.
I've used AI for similar things. It's very good at transcription and translation and summaries of texts you give it. It does, however, have its limitations for some historical tasks. For example, I've been looking for the source of a half-remembered quote from something I'd read 20 years ago, about Japanese-American relations. I remember the gist of the quote and plugged it in to both Chat-GPT and Claude and both confidently gave me specific sources that were incorrect. So, it's not quite ready for primetime as a research assistant. (In AI's favor, I'm beginning to think the quote doesn't exist, that it was something I thought up myself and attributed to my reading. But, still, the answers were hallucinations.)
You can't really use it yet for deep drill downs in research, as a substitute for doing the reading yourself. It'll give you a better-than-wikipedia summary of a topic, but it lacks the nuance and depth of really good historical research.
Oh yeah, I forgot to say that this post was great. I really enjoyed it and it was very useful to me.
If we just focus on the benefits, I think there are a lot AI models can help with (as the examples you brought up in the article). It's definitely helping me when approaching sources in languages I don't speak, to make better sense of them. Even if I have to check plenty of details afterwards.
Brilliant article.
This is impressive stuff... hard to shake the "depressingly good," though. I'm not sure why. It's not a conscious expectation of automation. But seeing historical analysis this good (heck, even the transcription and translation) from an AI... dread, it makes me feel dread.
I know it would take us back to the 1970s, but.. handwritten exams!
A really interesting piece, too. Thank you.
Loved getting a glimpse into the book, to say nothing of the future of doing and teaching history.
Since the early days of ChatGPT, I've imagined what it would have been like to have an LLM transcribe and search all the diaries of school teachers I was trying to absorb. Since I never came close to reading them all myself (it would have taken far more time than I had to write my dissertation), having a tool to search and find references to specific events or books would have rescued what seemed an interesting project.
Tim Lee wrote apiece and did a podcast with Nathan Lambert about how post-training models for narrow purposes are where the action will be, at least in the near future. Your tool is nice evidence for that thesis.
Good insight 😌 Can i translate part of this article into Spanish with links to you and a description of your newsletter?
Interesting. Thanks