[SIGCIS-Members] Perplexity, or ML tools in historical research

[James Cortada]

To build on Paul's comment: When I worked at IBM in those years when
spreadsheets went into wide use I noticed quickly that many young employees
believed literally what the spreadsheets displayed on their screens to a
far greater extent than, say, accountants and others who were aged 40s or
50s.  I was one of the latter and on occasion I would see something
displayed, or later displayed on a Powerpoint presentation, that did not
intuitively seem right and I would challenge the data.  That would force a
conversation about formulas, assumptions, quality and quantity of the
statistical inputs, etc. and then possible alterations in the findings.

This was not a new occurrence.  It seems every time we encounter a new IT
application or tool we have to learn how to use it, improve its
performance, then learn where and when to apply it.  I suspect that
experience affected early users of hammers, tooh picks, and microwave ovens.

Jim

On Mon, May 12, 2025 at 9:04 AM Ceruzzi, Paul via Members <
members at lists.sigcis.org> wrote:

> This has happened before: the embrace of spreadsheets like Lotus 1-2-3 by
> users who were seduced by their power on a PC desktop may have led to the
> financial excesses of the late 1990s.
>
> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/45869772_Spreadsheets_and_the_Financial_Collapse
> Paul Ceruzzi
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, May 7, 2025 5:00 PM
> *To:* Troy Astarte <t.k.astarte at swansea.ac.uk>; Ceruzzi, Paul <
> CeruzziP at si.edu>
> *Cc:* Sigcis <members at sigcis.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Perplexity, or ML tools in historical
> research
>
> External Email - Exercise Caution
>
> Cherry-picking one sentence from Troy:
>
> > What I have not found so far is whether there is any requirement to
> declare the use of ML-based tools in their research.
>
> Since Google now starts with an "AI summary", even Google searches would
> need to be declared under such a rule.
>
> (Try googling "Does Google AI hallucinate?")
>
> DuckDuckGo is heading in the same direction, but more carefully:
> https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fspreadprivacy.com%2Fduckassist-launch%2F&data=05%7C02%7CCeruzziP%40si.edu%7Cea9a69451bab48abb56408dd8daa2fec%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C638822484297266330%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=0OB7RjvvFEsBhJ7x09%2BgqX%2FBszm5Z%2F6OZKtXQDdmAFc%3D&reserved=0
> <https://spreadprivacy.com/duckassist-launch/>
>
> Regards
>     Brian Carpenter
>
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-- 
James W. Cortada
Senior Research Fellow
Charles Babbage Institute
University of Minnesota
jcortada at umn.edu
608-274-6382
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