On ‘AI’, its ghosts, corpses, gods, and other use cases in archaeology

This is a free seminar, open to all. Prof Graham's seminar is entitled 'Practical Necromancy for Beginners. On ‘AI’, its ghosts, corpses, gods, and other use cases in archaeology' and will take place online on 28 November from 16.30-17.30 GMT.

Shawn Graham is a digital archaeologist and Full Professor in the Department of History at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He is also the Programme Coordinator for the MA specialization in Digital Humanities. He founded and edits the open access journal Epoiesen: A Journal for Creative Engagement in History and Archaeology.

Abstract

In one way or another, I’ve been trying to resurrect the dead using a variety of digital technologies for some time. I even wrote a book on ‘raising the dead’ that inauspiciously was published in the middle of a global pandemic and which managed to come out just before OpenAI released ChatGPT and changed the direction of machine learning research, increased the climate impact of data centres, and reinvigorated the market for small modular nuclear technologies. Anything I might say is suspect. ‘AI’, as popularly understood, is a technology filled with ghosts and futures, religious fervour, and dodgy politics.  I’ve been trying to equip my history students to make sensible decisions about what these technologies do, how they do it, how they came to be, and when or where it is appropriate to use them. I won’t promise much, but in this talk I explore how all of that has been going and show some experiments that I think are useful and ethical.

This online event is organised by the TETRARCHs project, made possible by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) & CHANSE, Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe. Further details and Zoom registration are via the booking link above.

TETRARCHs (Transforming Data Reuse in Archaeology), an international research project, aims to make archaeological data (from excavations and post-excavation research) accessible to a wide range of people, so that the data can be used and reused for educational, creative and other life-enriching purposes. For this reason, the project team will work collaboratively across a range of communities to come up with ways in which data use and reuse can be made easier for cultural heritage storytelling.

If you would like us to notify you about future seminars and other activities related to the TETRARCHs project and are not on our regular mailing list yet, please email us on hello@tetrarchs.org or a.simandiraki-grimshaw@ucl.ac.uk confirming your interest. We will keep your details on file until the project’s close at the end of 2025.