Will the Humanities Survive in the Age of Artificial Intelligence?

The author believes that denying the reality of AI and insisting on outdated educational methods is no longer sustainable.

Graham Burnett, historian of science and professor at Princeton University, has written an article for The New Yorker exploring whether the humanities can survive—or even thrive—in the era of artificial intelligence. He speculates that, ultimately, humanity will triumph over machines.

Burnett points to the “strange suspension” dominating academic institutions—an unwillingness to confront the reality of AI combined with a clinging to traditional methods of teaching—and argues that this attitude can no longer endure. He observes that his students, when engaging with this technology, often feel a kind of freedom, a release from social pressure, and even a purity of attention they haven’t found in human interactions.

Burnett candidly admits that many scholarly works that used to take years to produce—like academic books—can now be generated more quickly and efficiently with AI. Yet he sees this not as a reason for despair, but as an opportunity to return to the essence of the humanities.

In his view, questions like “How should one live?”, “How should one die?”, and “What is worth preserving?” are not answered through knowledge alone, but through being. While machines may be able to produce answers, they cannot live these questions.

Burnett makes a passionate case for humanness, reminding us that while AI might preserve humanity’s cultural archives and simulate human-like conversation, the act of living, feeling, choosing, and taking responsibility for others remains an exclusively human domain.

He emphasizes the concept of “being present”—living in the moment with awareness of self and the world around us—as something machines cannot replicate. They are only secondary reflections of what we are, while the human, with all its flaws and contradictions, remains the true agent of meaning and experience.

Rather than seeing AI as a threat to the humanities, Burnett proposes that it acts as a mirror, prompting us to reexamine what it means to be human. It offers a chance to return to the authenticity of questions, to philosophical reflection, and to teaching as “the non-coercive reorganization of desire.”

In this light, he concludes, despite all the fears, this moment might be the best time to reinvent the humanities.

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