I took the past two weeks, of our team projects, as an opportunity to ponder how my research background can enhance the study of AI hallucinations. Matter of fact, Sasha’s initial project proposal caught my attention because of genuine concerns about increased reliance on AI-generated material for knowledge. There are real life examples – both reported and not – of individuals being misguided by AI-generated videos, images, text, or other content, affecting business and mass awareness. Thus, reasons for the controversies around AI-generating tools being present in education. Especially in contexts of studying history, there are individuals (including myself) that question the accuracy of some generated answers. Studying AI hallucinations of ethnic histories positions everyone involved to reinforce or decimate some current assumptions or ideas about AI in education, especially the teaching of past human experiences. 

Getting assigned to a research-leading role made me reconsider how any history is studied. Granted, the AI Hallucinations project is not particularly designed for explicitly studying a historical topic in detail. However, a journal article by Ryan Cordell (assigned last semester) asserted that knowledge and insights from disciplines outside of Digital Humanities are necessary (Cordell, 2016). Being involved with the project means leveraging past insights gained in relation to researching history because it is a process that ends with basic facts (of a person, event, or era) along with perspectives on what the topic means in relation to another or broader context. AI has been proven to function as a research tool, however, to what extent can it fully accomplish the mission of producing a narrative? While the project’s aims do not extend to specifically figuring out this question, potential findings could possibly be asked from such an angle.  

These reflections are already guiding my research. Finding other projects – with similar scopes of focus, data, and intentions – this week was not easy since Artificial Intelligence is still relatively recent. More specifically, academic perspectives on usage are also emerging. Nonetheless, I decided to seek out scholarship that discusses the impact of AI in education, society, and especially in the overall study of human histories. The initial searches led to sources that emphasize proven errors in AI systems, providing exceptional background details of the issues being addressed. The authors (found during preliminary research) share unique and opposing perspectives, thus, demonstrating relevant controversies. In addition, different types of errors are described; e.g., informational, source-reading error, bias. With the environment surrounding AI considered, studying its hallucinations facilitates the conditions necessary for recognizing flaws in a technology that is spreading globally.