Augmentation & AI

What does it mean to work with culture as data in the age of AI?

Two readings today showing us very different approaches!

Let’s start with Underwood piece…

What is distant reading?

While distant reading has taught us a lot about the history of fiction, it hasn’t done much yet to explain why we keep turning pages.

How does Underwood study suspense and what makes it difficult?

Why is it a problem that these models have already seen these books? How does Underwood attempt to get around this problem?

What does Underwood find when it comes to the Baskervilles? How is he using computation to measure LLM results?

Let’s Compare to the Pudding Piece

How did Samora and Pera-McGhee use AI compared to Underwood?

Why did the authors score Claude this way? Do you agree with their assessments? Did you like the Claude story?

Big Questions

• When can we trust AI for working with culture as data?
• What are the limits of using it for analysis vs other tasks?
• What happens to creativity and originality with these tools?