There’s been buzz around collegiate communities after Nathan Heller’s New Yorker article “The End of the English Major” wiggled its way across social media and into email inboxes. Heller discusses the fall of humanities enrollment that has been affecting the U.S. nationwide.
One of the recurring culprits in regard to the English major’s demise is AI. This is under the assumption that tools like ChatGPT will “take over” with its quick essay quips. However, this isn’t really the case.
ChatGPT is a language model, meaning it relies on human training to statistically predict the correct language input based on a prompt. When ChatGPT is asked to produce an essay, it is using logic based on human examples, not original analysis. This is much unlike the human brain that uses thought and reasoning in order to produce original arguments.
“I think literary study trains brains in a way that works very differently from the large language models that’s not just about processing information,” says Andrew Newman, Professor and Chair of Stony Brook University’s English Department.
“AI isn't remotely the end of the English major,” says Elyse Graham, Professor of Stony Brook University’s English Department. “The purpose of the English major has never been to teach students to summarize texts. It has been to teach students how to think critically, write brilliantly, work with archives, keep ahead of a changing media landscape, and understand the past. Those are, to use a pun, the ends of the English major.”
“What gives me hope with the English major specifically, is the power it has to connect you to so many humanities disciplines and how many industries need those who study the nuances of narrative: Narrative is found of course in poetry, prose, non-fiction, drama, but also in film, podcasts, marketing campaigns, and also in our daily interactions with people (texting, TikTok, Instagram, emails),” says Andrew Rimby, PhD candidate for Stony Brook University’s English Department, and Executive Director of The Ivory Tower Room, a public humanities podcast.
In reality, we still need the creativity of the human mind in order to improve AI as a tool to make our lives easier. One cannot replace the other. If anything, such collaboration should increase.
Humanities and STEM research collaboration has already been quite prominent, for instance, Stony Brook University’s BIAS-NRT, a traineeship project that aims to address bias in data, humans, and institutions.
This project involves research collaboration between multiple disciplines. We see experts in humanities fields, such as Linguistics and Sociology, collaborate with experts in STEM fields, such as Applied Mathematics & Statistics and Computer Science.
Another example that came into fruition recently is the selection of Stony Brook University as the anchor institution for The New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island.
“The Governors Island initiative is a good example of a cross-disciplinary collaboration. It’s more about STEM, but Michael Rubenstein and Heidi Hutner from the English Department were both involved in the proposal process,” says Newman.
Perhaps we should continue the momentum of humanities-STEM collaboration, and bring more of it into the realm of AI. With the creative initiatives of the humanities, and the analytics of STEM, we can improve our lives with talented minds.
“What I've learned from being an unapologetic openly gay male scholar, podcaster, writer, and media personality is that my multi-faceted network continues to teach me that the humanities are at the root of what it means to communicate. And with that, I hope that you find your creative voice, and once you hear that inner voice talking to you, please do not let it go,” says Rimby.
-Sara Giarnieri, Communications Assistant