Does generative artificial intelligence pose a threat to the humanities?

Abstract

The question of whether generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) poses a threat to the humanities— languages, literature, philosophy, art, and music, among others—is on the minds of many. This paper considers several GenAI capabilities that challenge academic disciplines, in general, and the humanities, in particular. We critically analyze GenAI’s potential impact on (a) content quality, bias, and privacy and (b) on teaching, research, and related jobs in the humanities. In addition, GenAI-related developments raise ethical concerns in academic environments where the contribution of these tools—in teaching, research, or students’ work—are not explicitly stated. Although GenAI presents many challenges, we argue that it cannot replace humanities education, research, or practice because it lacks emotions, lived experience, originality, uniqueness, and ethical considerations. GenAI’s encroachment into the humanities can be viewed as mostly aiding and facilitating human works as opposed to replacing them. While this article relies on a focused narrative review of literature, we critically examine factors that can help and hurt the humanities and offer plausible explanations supporting our central argument—why GenAI does not pose an existential threat to the discipline. This paper concludes with several policy recommendations to address some of the aforementioned challenges.