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Simulating History with Multimodal AI: an Update

Oct 26, 2023 - resobscura.substack.com
UC Santa Cruz history professor Benjamin Breen discusses his use of AI in teaching and research, particularly in creating immersive historical simulations. He uses GPT-4 to generate plausible historical settings and characters, and the rise of multimodal AI has allowed him to incorporate images into these simulations. Breen provides a detailed example of a simulation of a day in the life of a temple scribe in ancient Ur and another of Pompeii on the day of Mt. Vesuvius's eruption. He believes these simulations not only engage students but also encourage empathy with other people and other lives.

Breen also discusses the potential of AI to evoke other lives in a way that encourages reflection on our own lives and histories. He uses the Holodeck from Star Trek as an example of how this might look in an optimistic scenario. He sees the potential for AI tools to become more sophisticated and more embedded in our culture and pedagogy, serving as a tool for immersive learning about history and generating real emotional connections with other lives and places.

Key takeaways:

  • The author, a history professor, uses AI to create immersive historical simulations for his students, using GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 to generate text and images based on primary source texts.
  • The simulations allow students to "live" in the past, experiencing historical events and characters in a way that encourages empathy and understanding.
  • The author uses the example of a simulation of Pompeii on the day of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius to illustrate the process and potential of this teaching tool.
  • While the simulations are currently used mainly for entertainment and exploration, the author hopes they can be developed into a tool for fostering emotional connections with other lives and places.
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