Thank-you Microsoft!

Last Friday, Microsoft informed us (a faculty colleague and I) that they had decided to fund a research proposal we submitted to them in February. For this, we are grateful to Microsoft’s AI Economy Institute for seeing value in our work.

The faculty colleague I mentioned earlier and the one who’s leading this effort is Karl Gunther, Associate Professor of Humanities at the Hamilton Center. Karl’s research focuses on the English Reformation. In his latest book, Reformation Unbound: Protestant Visions of Reform in England, he explores the radical contours of Protestant thought in 16th-century England. In it, Karl argues that Reformation era evangelicals “were calling for reforms and envisioning godly life in ways that were far more radical than have hitherto been appreciated” Like the evangelicals he studies, Karl too is an innovator, though certainly not a religious radical.

Today, I’d like to provide a synopsis of the proposed research. Here it is:

Although AI poses numerous challenges for the humanities, it also opens up significant opportunities. Given this reality, we believe a proactive stance to the technology is better than a reactive one. Faculty in the humanities and social sciences often feel excluded from technology conversations, wary of AI tools they did not ask for and that were not designed with their needs in mind. This reality creates distrust and fear even amongst academics who might otherwise be open to an exploration of what AI now makes possible.

This research project will seek to dissolve some of that fear and distrust. The primary aim of this inquiry is to gain a better understanding of how humanities research methods and tools might benefit from the judicious application of advanced machine learning technologies. To achieve that aim, study participants will be invited to imagine and design an AI-enabled research system that aligns with and supports their needs and values. Design work will be accomplished during focus group sessions and structured interviews with our research team.

Our funder, Microsoft, is specifically interested in exploring how AI might facilitate interdisciplinary approaches to humanities research. Hence, a key design objective of this study is to figure out how to integrate data from multiple disciplines into a single research system in support of creative, serendipitous discovery.

Stay tuned to FireRime for future updates about this project.