Speaker: Prof Tim Hitchcock, University of Sussex
Abstract: In many applications AI has replaced the traditional search form with a conversational box inviting dialogue in prose. In the process it has eliminated the need for the user to interrogate and understand the underlying data structure. This brief comment seeks to highlight both what is lost, and how data providers can help mitigate the problem.
Bio: Tim Hitchcock is Professor Emeritus of Digital History at the University of Sussex. He has been involved in the developing online historical resources since the early 1990s onwards, including The Old Bailey Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org) and London Lives (www.londonlives.org). He has also published widely on the history of eighteenth-century Britain.