Scholars from across the U.S. recently joined Montana State University faculty, students, staff and members of the public for a two-day symposium focusing on “The Future of Research in the Age of AI.”
The event held March 27-28 was one of three major symposia in 2025 sponsored by the American Historical Association on topics pertaining to large-scale research. William Thomas, professor of history, dean of MSU’s College of Letters and Science and vice president of AHA’s research division, facilitated the symposium at MSU, which is actively engaged in leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to benefit students and university researchers.
“This conference was inspiring in several ways,” Thomas said. “First, we hosted some of the leading historians and researchers in the U.S., and they demonstrated showcase projects for how AI and machine learning are already transforming large-scale research.”
The visiting historians, archivists and social science researchers who presented on the first day of the conference described the various ways that they use artificial intelligence tools in their work. Those included using AI to identify unlabeled historical images or determine the time period when an undated document was produced, or to organize and clean data to ensure that it is complete, correct and accurate.
“AI is already revolutionizing research, and this technology can turn literally millions of handwritten historical documents into machine-readable files in minutes,” Thomas said. “It’s truly exciting stuff, and we need to be thinking about how we do research differently.”
The conference’s second day included roundtable discussions moderated by MSU faculty experts. Each focused on issues related to the use of AI, including the ethics of how to use AI tools in academic work and writing. Topics discussed included developing processes for acknowledging the use of AI in academic work while incorporating data gathered in other research settings, and the benefits and drawbacks of using generative AI in the writing process.
“People were ready to ask questions and have conversations,” said Jason Clark, professor and head of Research Optimization, Analytics and Data Services for the MSU Library, who co-moderated one of the sessions. “I met a number of new people and a number of students who were able to sit with faculty and offer their own perspectives about how to use these generative AI tools ethically and why or why not to use them in your writing process.”
Clark said the MSU Library, along with several other campus entities under the umbrella of the MSU Research Alliance, have been exploring such responsible AI issues as they develop guidelines for using AI in teaching and research.
“Having this national conference at MSU allowed us to extend these conversations with the broader community in consideration of AI as a part of our information landscape,” said Doralyn Rossmann, dean of the MSU Library. “Being able to share across disciplines at this conference highlights the rapidly emerging role of AI across our information society.”
Thomas said discussions at the symposium already have helped guide planning for future projects.
“We heard an inspiring call to action from the participants,” he said. “What if we built the tools and technologies future researchers would want to have 30 or 40 years from now to analyze the digital record of today’s society, politics, culture and scientific knowledge?”
Thomas added that the symposium provided a valuable forum for researchers.
“The conference helped put Montana State University at the forefront of large-scale historical research using AI, and it helped our faculty and students to think through its potential benefits and pitfalls,” he said.
In addition to the College of Letters and Science, MSU’s Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering and College of Arts and Architecture provided significant support for the event.