Will AI replace Historians?
Estimated risk score: 55 out of 100
Moderate replacement risk
Estimate from published task research, not reviewed by a person · how we estimate
Within about 19 points for 4 in 5 of the jobs we checked (36 to 74).
For the occupation as a whole, from ratings of its 21 O*NET tasks published in 2023 and calibrated to our hand scores. A specialty inside it can sit higher or lower.
O*NET-SOC 19-3093.00 · Life, Physical, and Social Science
Tasks rated in 2023 as ones AI could do or speed up
Tasks a GPT-4-class model could do, or do in half the time or less: 5 of its 21 rated tasks. In O*NET’s words.
- Translate or request translation of reference materials.
- Organize information for publication and for other means of dissemination, such as via storage media or the Internet.
- Edit historical society publications.
- Collect detailed information on individuals for use in biographies.
- Coordinate activities of workers engaged in cataloging and filing materials.
Tasks rated in 2023 as not sped up by AI
Tasks such a model was rated as not speeding up or taking over: 3 of its 21 rated tasks. In O*NET’s words.
- Conserve and preserve manuscripts, records, and other artifacts.
- Interview people to gather information about historical events and to record oral histories.
- Speak to various groups, organizations, and clubs to promote the aims and activities of historical societies.
What the job is
Research, analyze, record, and interpret the past as recorded in sources, such as government and institutional records, newspapers and other periodicals, photographs, interviews, films, electronic media, and unpublished manuscripts, such as personal diaries and letters.
Also called: Genealogist, PI Historian, Film Historian, Oral Historian, Protohistorian, Dance Historian, Historiographer, Music Historian.
Source. This site includes information from the O*NET 30.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. (O*NET, CC BY 4.0.) Task ratings: Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock (2023), “GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models”, data used under the MIT licence (licence texts). Our change: we averaged the ratings over this occupation’s tasks and calibrated them to our 0–100 scale. It is not a prediction about any one person and not career advice. Disagree? Write to hello@yourstopwashit.com. How we estimate