Speaker: Prof Leif Isaksen, University of Exeter
Abstract: This presentation will make the case that very recent developments in AI ‘agency’ – the ability to use digital tools, and iterate and reason over abstract and concrete tasks – present a radically new environment for the delivery of public information resources. The cost of interface development has historically been so high that in practice data and presentational format are often tightly bound. It is rapidly becoming possible to produce bespoke, even ‘disposable’, interfaces that tailor individual or combined datasets to the specific needs of an individual or stakeholder group. This allows both for much greater agency by those users, as well as potential risks and opportunities to the content providers as material is presented in ways that may radically depart from their original intent. Here I hope to open up, rather than resolve, some of those questions as we enter an Age of Agentic AI.
Bio: Leif Isaksen is Professor of Ancient History and Digital Humanities at the University of Exeter. His main interests are in spatial and temporal representation in the humanities – both in the ancient world and the modern one – and the use of Intelligent Systems to relate and interrogate online resources about the past. This is most notably as Director of several projects associated with the Pelagios Network, including the development of the Recogito annotation platform. He is also engaged with development of digital skills in the Arts and Humanities, specifically through the Hot Source! and DISKAH projects. Leif has been involved as an Officer, Trustee or Steering Group member of a number of Humanities and Digital Humanities activities and organisations worldwide, including CAA, EADH and ISHMap, and was Executive Board Chair of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organisations (ADHO) from 2019 to 2021.