Post № 54 - Artificial Intelligence Meets the Middle Ages: Making or Faking History?

Things become altogether more complex when you experiment with engaging ChatGPT as a research assistant. It will produce relatively accurate and well-written prose on general subjects or well-known authors that feature prominently on Wikipedia and other such openly accessible platforms. But a more specific subject – I tried “manuscript illumination in the Tournai region around 1400” – will wake up another side of the chatbot. It will then provide information that looks very convincing but that turns out to be completely irrelevant. When asked to clarify, it will vehemently insist on its mistakes, or it will apologise while making new ones without blinking an eye.