Annual Lecture

Can I Help You? Recognising and Improving Artificial Intelligence as History Maker

Distinguished Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO, University of South Australia/Adelaide University, 16 October (6pm), State Library of Victoria Theatrette

Book here

Can I help you? If you use digital devices, you probably receive many offers of help every day. Help with the next word you might want to write in a message, or with generating a document or an image, or suggestions about what you might buy, watch, study or borrow. This oration explains how these offers of help are part of a wider invitation for us to recognise AI as history maker. Using examples, it shows how AI makes meaning from past data to make recommendations for the present and the future. It also argues that seeing AI as history maker is important for making better AI technologies, and histories. Knowing what histories are written about you and others, and knowing how those histories can be made is critical for social and economic health.

Distinguished Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO PFHEA B.Ed (Hons) Tas, DPhil Oxon

A graduate of the Universities of Tasmania and Oxford, Marnie has a global profile as a philosopher and as an historian. Her current work looks at how AI makes histories, and how histories might be made in future which are efficient, safe, and ethical. Her writing has been translated into five languages, over 26,000 copies of her books have been sold, and her theories are taught across the world. She has led or been an investigator on a total of $18 million in grants. Her most recent books are History from Loss (edited with Daniel Woolf, 2023) and The Routledge Companion to History and the Moving Image (edited with Kim Nelson and Mia Treacey, 2023) and she is co-secretary general of the International Commission for the History and Theory of History. In 2022 she was made an Officer in the Order of Australia for her contribution to higher education governance, leadership, and mentoring.

This lecture will be preceded by the award of two major annual prizes.

The Jane Hansen Prize for History Advocacy was established in 2020 to recognise the efforts of a group or individual that has advocated for the value of history, the work of historians and/or the importance of an education in history, and is named in honour of Ms Jane Hansen AO whose passion for history and its advocacy is widely acknowledged.

The Lynette Russell Prize for First Peoples' History in Schools was established by Professor Lynette Russell AM to encourage the creative engagement and deeper knowledge of a wider number of primary and secondary school students in this area.

Each year, the History Council of Victoria presents a public lecture that shares fresh thinking and new evidence on an historical topic.

In 2023, Professor Susie Protschky presented on Colonial Pasts and Image Wars.

In 2022, Associate Professor Catherine Kovesi presented on Beauty in Response to Plague: the city of Venice.

In 2021, Dr Carolyn Holbrook explored power and sentiment in the Australian Federation, with a lecture entitled:

‘I don’t hold a hose, mate’: Power and sentiment in the Australian Federation

Click HERE to read about the previous lectures presented since 2004 by the History Council of Victoria.

About

The History Council of Victoria Incorporated (HCV) is the peak body for history in the Australian state of Victoria. Its vision is to connect Victorians with history and to inspire engagement with the past, their identity and the world today. The HCV champions the work of historians and the value of history. It recognises that history can be written about any place, any person, any period. The HCV advocates why history matters.

Events

Our calendar lists all upcoming public events arranged by the History Council of Victoria (HCV), plus events in Victoria, Australia, that are added by our Friends and Members.

If you are organising an event that relates to History, we encourage you to publicise it on our website.

Advocacy

As the peak body for history in Victoria, the History Council makes submissions on current issues. In doing this, the HCV Board is guided by its Advocacy Policy and by the Value of History, a statement developed co-operatively by the HCV and the History Councils of New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia.

Prizes

Since 2015, the HCV has been pleased to sponsor the Years 9 and 10 category of the Historical Fiction Competition organised by the History Teachers' Association of Victoria.

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Summary

The HCV was formed as an advisory body in 2001 and incorporated in 2003. It comprises representatives from cultural and educational institutions and heritage bodies; history teachers and curriculum advisors; academic and professional historians; and local, Indigenous, community and specialist history organisations.

As the peak body for history, the HCV has both ‘outward-looking’ roles (including advocacy and representation to government and the wider community, consultation, community education, and networking with allied interest groups) and ‘inward-looking’ roles (including member support, information dissemination, and networking between members).

Credits

The History Council of Victoria acknowledges the State Library of Victoria and the Public Record Office Victoria for supply of the archival images that appear on this website.

We acknowledge the National Film and Sound Archive for the right to use of the video footage on the home page, titled "Melbourne: Life in Australia (1966)".

Image credits

Italian sailors on ship at Port Melbourne 1938, Argus Newspaper Collection of Photographs, State Library of Victoria
Chinese procession in Collins near Elizabeth Street 1901, Harvie & Sutcliffe, photographers, State Library of Victoria
People’s homes, Aboriginal station Coranderrk 1878, Fred Kruger Photographer, State Library of Victoria
Chinese nurses at Children’s Hospital under scholarship 1947, Argus Newspaper Collection of Photographs, State Library of Victoria
Ladies physical culture class VRI Melbourne c1931, Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 12903/P0001, 011/02
Melbourne Cup, Derby and Oaks Day, Flemington Racecourse 1936, Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 12903/P0001/4802, 372/30
Flinders Street viaduct at foot of Market Street with advertisement for McRobertson’s Chocolate on bridge, Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 12800/P0003, ADV 1342