The issue with AI ‘making interesting observations’ is problematic. I want the technology to assist with transcription work, but as an archivist and historian, the interpretation of the data is more nuanced… it summaries of content too easily become ‘historical facts’. There is an ethical issue here.
Awesome post, Mark! I agree with your assesment. I've trying to get ChatGPT to segment and create a table with some data from a HTR-transcribed volume of eighteenth-century Brazilian notarial records, but only o1 managed to do, and with a very simple prompt. However, I can't do at scale, because it does not accept uploads yet, nor produces downloadable files. API would probably work, but I don't know how to code nor do I have access to it because I'm not in that tier you mentioned, so...
The issue with AI ‘making interesting observations’ is problematic. I want the technology to assist with transcription work, but as an archivist and historian, the interpretation of the data is more nuanced… it summaries of content too easily become ‘historical facts’. There is an ethical issue here.
Thank you for sharing the details. This is an exciting time for using AI in historical research!
Awesome post, Mark! I agree with your assesment. I've trying to get ChatGPT to segment and create a table with some data from a HTR-transcribed volume of eighteenth-century Brazilian notarial records, but only o1 managed to do, and with a very simple prompt. However, I can't do at scale, because it does not accept uploads yet, nor produces downloadable files. API would probably work, but I don't know how to code nor do I have access to it because I'm not in that tier you mentioned, so...