The emergence of large language models and recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) challenge the Humanities to reconsider foundational questions about meaning, method, and mediation.

This panel is organised as 4 talks followed by a discussion exploring whether and how AI enhances understanding of cultural-historical data, and what this means for the future of humanistic inquiry. We open with a clear-eyed assessment of what AI is - and is not - arguing for critical discernment

about its capacities, especially given its probabilistic nature, opacity, and the ethical concerns it raises. We then propose literary studies as a crucial site for testing AI’s potential, emphasizing the need for careful, context-sensitive experiments in writing and textual analysis. We further situate AI within broader technological paradigms, advocating for open, accessible infrastructures that resist corporate monopolies and empower scholars to build, audit, and reimagine AI systems. Finally, we offer a speculative, practice-led perspective, framing AI not just as tool but as method - as a co-

creative partner in research and teaching, capable of attuning to the rhythms, ethics, and aesthetics of posthuman inquiry.

Together, these perspectives illuminate both the promise and peril of AI for the humanities: not as a monolithic solution, but as a dynamic, contested, and co-constructed force that must be interrogated, democratized, and reshaped in relation to the cultural, historical, and ethical stakes

of our time. By examining AI “through a glass darkly,” this panel invites critical engagement with what these technologies reveal and conceal about knowledge, power, and human becoming.