The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into academic environments is reshaping the pedagogical landscape of many disciplines including the Digital Humanities (DH). This presentation explores the implications of Generative AI for DH pedagogy, focusing on how educators can adapt their teaching practices to both harness the potential of these tools and critically evaluate their impact.

Digital Humanities has long stood at the intersection of technological innovation and humanistic inquiry (Frontoni et al., 2024). In the age of AI, this intersection has become more complex and, at times, more problematic. Generative models such as ChatGPT, Claude, and others are now capable of producing text, code, and even creative works that rival human output. As these tools become more readily accessible, DH educators face the dual challenge of integrating Generative AI into the curriculum in meaningful ways, while ensuring that students develop the critical skills necessary to evaluate and contextualise AI generated content (Frontoni et al., 2024; Daher, 2025).

This presentation will offer a brief overview of some current trends in AI-enhanced education, with a specific focus on DH contexts. It will draw on examples from recent classroom practices, including the use of AI for text analysis, data visualisation, and creative writing (García-López & Trujillo-Liñán, 2025). These examples will illustrate how Generative AI can be meaningfully integrated into DH curricula to enhance student learning, foster experimentation, and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration. Through this approach both students and staff are able to construct knowledge and understanding actively through constructivist methods, rather than relying on passive knowledge transfer (Vygotsky, 1978).

The presentation will also address the risks and limitations of AI in pedagogical settings, including concerns around academic integrity, diminished critical thinking, and the potential for bias and misinformation in AI-generated content (Nagelhout, 2025; Mills et al., 2024). As a response, it advocates for a framework for responsible AI integration in DH pedagogy, one that emphasises transparency, ethical awareness, and the development of digital literacy.

Main themes are:

• Critical AI Literacy: Teaching students (this is equally important for staff too) to understand how AI systems work, what their limitations are, and how to interpret their outputs critically (Daher, 2025; Darvish et al., 2024; Open University, 2025).
• Collaborative Intelligence: encouraging a constructivist approach where students engage with AI tools in ways that enhance human creativity and insight (Chen, 2025), rather than replacing them.
• Ethical Engagement: Embedding discussions of bias, surveillance, and algorithmic justice into DH curricula to promote socially responsible and ethical scholarship (Nagelhout, 2025).
• Curriculum Design: Rethinking course structures to include Generative AI as both a tool and a topic, while maintaining the core values of humanistic inquiry (Frontoni et al., 2024).

The presentation will conclude with a call to DH educators, to embrace the transformative potential of AI while remaining cautious about its implications. Rather than viewing AI as a threat to traditional pedagogy, we should see it as an opportunity to reimagine how we teach DH in ways that are more inclusive, dynamic, and future-facing. DH is uniquely positioned to advocate for the use of Generative AI and DH tools to promote mutual understanding, bridge linguistic and cultural barriers, and build a more inclusive and interconnected global academic community.

This proposal aligns with the HKADH2026 conference theme, Digital Humanities Pedagogy, and contributes to the ongoing conversation about how automated and generative technologies are reshaping scholarly practices. It is intended to provoke discussion among educators, researchers, and technologists, and to offer insights for navigating the complexities of AI in the classroom.

References

Chen, Z. (2025). The humanities in an AI world: Personal reflections. JSTOR. https://www.about.jstor.org/blog/the-humanities-in-an-ai-world-personal-reflections-from-sxsw-edu-2025

Daher, R. (2025). Integrating AI literacy into teacher education: a critical perspective. Discover Artificial Intelligence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44163-025-00475-7

Darvishi, A., Khosravi, H., Sadiq, S., Gašević, D. & Siemens, G., (2024). Impact of AI assistance on student agency. Computers & Education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104967

Frontoni, E., Paolanti, M., Migliorelli, L., Pietrini, R., & Asimakopoulos, S. (2024). Artificial intelligence: the new frontier in digital humanities. Frontiers in Computer Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2024.1529826

García-López, I. M., & Trujillo-Liñán, L. (2025). Ethical and regulatory challenges of Generative AI in education: a systematic review. Frontiers in Education. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1565938

Mills, K., Ruiz, P., Lee, K., Coenraad, M., Fusco, J., Roschelle, J., & Weisgrau, J. (2024). AI Literacy: A Framework to Understand, Evaluate, and Use Emerging Technology. Digital Promise. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED671235.pdf

Nagelhout, R. (2025). Developing AI Ethics in the Classroom. Harvard Graduate School of Education. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/25/07/developing-ai-ethics-classroom

Open University. (2025). A framework for the Learning and Teaching of Critical AI Literacy skills. https://about.open.ac.uk/sites/about.open.ac.uk/files/files/OU%20Critical-AI-Literacy-framework-2025.pdf

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.