I think it's likely much better for legal research than historical research right now. Most archives and many history books still haven't been fed into AI models yet (and may never be?), while some AI models can access case law and article databases.

I hope somebody who is more data-savvy than I am will do a deeper dive here (@rbtownsend.bsky.social @historians.org ?)

These kind of forecasts matter as people--and govts and universities--plan for the future, & the historical profession shouldn't let these misleading studies go uncontested. /fin

Those complex tasks DO show up under lawyers, who score as significantly less replaceable.

Also, the skills lists for historians and lawyers are quite similar.

So--studies on which professions can be replaced by AI are based on a dataset that is at best imprecise and at worst very misleading /4

The work tasks for historians include verbs like "research," "collect," or "organize." These are things AI can do, although still not very well in history.

Verbs that don't show up? "Interpret" or "analyze" or "evaluate."

These more complex tasks would top my list for historians. /3

Every study I've seen uses a government dataset called O*NET, which breaks down professions into specific tasks, activities, skills, knowledge, etc. The studies usually focus on tasks, which all start with active verbs. It's a very detailed breakdown, & the choice of those verbs matters. /2

Institutions are failing us, including universities that, in principle, ought to be standing up for academic freedom.

Academic friends, if you want to survive this moment, join the AAUP. Help yourself and colleagues at other institutions.

I start with the Reynolds Affair (spoiler: there may not have been an affair at all!), then cover seduction novels, the love lives of Aaron Burr and Gouverneur Morris (far spicier than you might expect!), presidential sex scandals, and the 19th century's biggest sex scandal/celebrity trial.

Thank you all so much for your dedication and hard work.

I tried several but thought I'd look at one more...and you're right, I found some pdf links that didn't work.

I also spent the afternoon downloading html pages with the SingleFile extension along with the pdfs for lessons I might want. Others should probably do the same.

Big thanks to @clancyny.bsky.social for sharing this.

It can be tough to be on social media right now, but this is a good reminder that it's also a tool for community sharing and building.

Yes just checked and posted your link--I wasn't familiar with this resource and it's much better than the usual wayback machine archived versions.

Thanks so much for sharing all this with me! Part of the challenge with these pages is there are lots of pdf's with student worksheets linked, and wayback machine doesn't always get those.