AI In OH: How New and Evolving Technologies Will Impact the Profession

Online Symposium – July 15-19, 2024

Since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the fall of 2022, artificial intelligence, or AI for short, has pervaded our shared discourse and lexicon. Myriad organizations and sectors are at once hurriedly embracing and cautiously considering the impacts large language models and complex algorithms might have on their industries. Oral history is not immune to AI’s influence, and in certain cases the profession might already hold extant examples of its effects on practice.

For this online symposium, OHA invited oral history practitioners and scholars from all disciplines who
utilized oral history in their work to submit proposals detailing any number of intersections between
artificial intelligence and oral history. From a strong submission pool, we are happy to present ten
sessions over five days (July 15-19, 2024) that delve into the structural and ethical aspects of applying
AI to oral history work.

You can find the digital version of the symposium program HERE.

Each session was scheduled for two hours, with the last thirty minutes designated for a robust Q&A section
so that attendees had plenty of opportunity to delve deeper into the theory and/or practice on display.
We also scheduled one morning and one afternoon session per day with a two-hour break in
between so that everyone had a chance to fit at least some of this content into their weekly schedule. Attendees were also provided access to all ten recordings from the AI in OH Symposium.

All OHA Members will be able to access the full list of recordings behind the membership paywall beginning April 1, 2025.

Pre-Symposium Webinar: An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence for Oral Historians

Monday, July 1, 2024 at 2pm Central Time

On July 1st, 2024 OHA put on a free pre-symposium webinar when AI in OH program committee members Steven Sielaff and James Fowler provided definitions, examples, and oral history tie-ins for the world of artificial intelligence. Whether you are completely new to the world of AI or have already delved into its applications for the oral history process, this webinar will serves as a great primer for the content discussed in the week-long AI in OH Symposium.

Runtime: 1 hour of instruction, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A