Dr. Annette Vee, associate professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, will give a lecture at the University of Lynchburg on Monday, March 17. The lecture, “Androids, Spirits, and Chatbots: Historicizing AI Writing,” will be held at 6 p.m. in Schewel Hall’s Sydnor Performance Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Vee’s lecture connects artificial intelligence, or AI, to 19th century spiritualism, which has been defined as a “social and religious movement that holds that consciousness continues after death and can be contacted by the living.”

According to a description of the lecture provided by Vee, “Generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT have suddenly thrust the automation of writing into the public spotlight. The machine learning techniques behind AI may be new; however, for centuries, humans have attempted to automate writing using mechanical, spiritual, and logical means.

“The automation of writing parallels a longer history of automation, yet with a twist: Each of these attempts to automate writing also implicated a kind of artificial human intelligence. Writing is uniquely human, and as such, it has served as a touchstone for scientific and literary imaginations focused on replicating human intelligence.

“This presentation puts current conversations about AI writing in historical context with 18th century androids, 19th century spiritualism, and 20th century computer scientists to probe both what writing meant in previous eras as well as dominant assumptions of what it meant to be human in these eras.”

Vee is the author of “Coding Literacy: How Computer Programming is Changing Writing.”

While she is on campus, Vee also will hold workshops for faculty and students.

For more information about the lecture, contact Dr. Chidsey Dickson, professor of English, at [email protected] or 434.544.8110.