Oral History Encounters AI: An Exploration of Core Principles and Best Practices, Context and Consent
Abstract
As with many fields of scholarship, oral history has been, and will continue to be, impacted by developments in artificial intelligence (AI). Oral history intersects most frequently with analytical and generative AI, and in this discussion, I analyze the pros and cons of using each. I also give special attention to the issues of context and consent, which both figure significantly in the Oral History Association’s “Principles and Best Practices” documents. AI has the potential to affect how we as a field comprehend these concepts and how we will ethically incorporate them into our work moving forward, so it is important for oral historians to have a clear understanding of the potential opportunities and consequences of utilizing AI.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Oral History
Memory
Narrative Analysis
Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
Digital Humanities and Scholarship
Publication details
- Journal / source
- The Oral History Review
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 93–110
- Publication date
- 2 January 2026
- Language
- EN