Building on the arguments in his recent book, Ethics of the Algorithm: Digital Humanities and Holocaust Memory (2024), this talk focuses on the challenges and possibilities of using computational methods to interpret the legacies of historical violence and archives of testimonial witnessing. Moving between ‘digital humanities’ and ‘AI humanities,’ Presner explores the meaning-making processes of algorithms and interrogates the decision-making mechanisms of Large Language Models for the study of history and memory.

Todd Presner is Chair of UCLA’s Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies and serves as Special Advisor to Vice Chancellor Roger Wakimoto in the Office for Research and Creative Activities (2018-present). Previously, he was the chair of UCLA’s Digital Humanities Program (2011-21), and from 2011-2018, he served as the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies. From 2018-21, he was Associate Dean of Digital Innovation. He holds the Michael and Irene Ross Chair in the UCLA Division of the Humanities.