This month, Anil Chandy, VP of Humanities, Social Sciences Books & Focus Projects at Springer Nature, joins The Authority File to apply a Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) lens to artificial intelligence. Sharing his publisher perspective, Anil reflects on how HSS disciplines regarded AI before and after the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. Further, he chats about current AI guidelines produced by publishers and how they’re influenced by initiatives put forth by governing bodies or technological organizations. Highlighting both areas for concern and the potential benefits of AI in the publishing lifecycle, Anil underscores the need for HSS approaches to this technology—both in studying the creative uses of large language models and scrutinizing its ethical and social implications.

In the first episode of this four-part series, Anil explains how his role at Springer Nature intersects with AI technology and provides a broad overview of HSS coverage of AI. In addition, he charts HSS discussions of AI pre- and post the launch of large language models for public use as theoretical ideas steadily became a reality. Finally, Anil explores the tension between supporting the democratization of knowledge—a key tenet of HSS studies—and ensuring copyright protections from AI scraping.

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