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Tim Hitchcock

Tim Hitchcock

@timhitchcock.bsky.social

4.5K followers 3.5K following 410 posts

Historian of 18th century London; Professor Emeritus of Digital History at the University of Sussex. Just coughing in the ink to the end of time.

Economics 31%

History 24%

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Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · 6d

It is a sign of old age and the absurdity of a life spent on things only I think of as important, but on a lot of detailed issues when I do a google search the only sources to come back are things I wrote - and therefore don't trust or like.

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Tim Hitchcock

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 6d

'Ofcom has made "urgent contact" with Elon Musk's company xAI following reports its AI tool Grok can be used to make "sexualised images of children" and undress women.'

The slumbering regulatory giant wakes?

Ofcom asks X about reports its Grok AI makes sexualised images of children

Elon Musk's social media platform has warned users not to use Grok to generate illegal content.

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Shannon Vallor, Ben H. Ansell , and 21 more Anne Applebaum, Shannon Vallor, Ben H. Ansell, Guntram B. Wolff, Christian Odendahl, Stephan Lewandowsky, Steve Peers, Mark D. White, American Library Association, Guy Grossman, Anders Nilsson, Johan P. Olsen, Jonathan Hopkin, R. M. Wilson, Robert B. Reich, Tim Hitchcock, James Goodwin, Brian Keegan, Aurélien Mondon, Seth Masket, Stephen I. Vladeck, Nancy M. Wingfield, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Stella M. Rouse

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 6d

amazing how the entire machine can pivot within 24 hours. no need to slowly upsell the argument; just issue new marching orders

Matt Walsh tweeted last year: "We've spent the last 25 years bringing "freedom" and "democracy" to countries around the globe while our own country has been systematically invaded and now our largest cities are run by foreigners and communists. If you want to know why I'm so avowedly non-interventionist, this is why."

Then he tweeted today: ""This is a war for oil!!!!!"

First of all, the "war" lasted like 90 minutes. Second, going to war to secure vital resources for your own people is totally legitimate. Why should we allow some third world communist shithole to control trillions of dollars worth of oil?"

Laura Loomer tweeted last year: "I’m America First, I don’t support “Regime Change”. I went on @Bannons_WarRoom to talk about Chinese aggression in Venezuela and why we need to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign Islamic terrorist organization."

Then she tweeted yesterday: "Maduro has arrived at the DEA office in Manhattan. He was transported in an armored motorcade after being transported in a blindfold via helicopter & then by plane to New York after his compound in Caracas was raided by US Special Forces.

Proud to be an American today!

USA 🇺🇸"

Catturd tweeted last year: "Name one U.S. inspired regime change that hasn’t ended in absolute disaster."

Then he tweeted yesterday: "Venezuela is now more free than New York City."

Will Chamberlain tweeted last year: "The Republican Party is no longer the party of regime change and endless wars

If you want to be its standard-bearer that is a non-negotiable position"

Then he tweeted yesterday: "I can think of few better uses of my tax dollars than black-bagging the head of a foreign narco-trafficking organization that enriches itself by addicting and poisoning my fellow Americans"

Reposted by Charles West, Tim Hitchcock

MarineLives @marinelives.bsky.social · 6d

NEW: Can LLMs open Ottoman archives to generalist historians? I show how AI transcription makes Ottoman Turkish, Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek & Armenian accessible—with auditable, scholarly results. Work in progress; feedback welcome!
generativelives.substack.com/p/opening-the-ottoman-archive

Opening the Ottoman Archive

You want to do granular research on the Ottoman Empire and its successor states, but don't read Ottoman Turkish. Do you throw up you hands or look for a new set of powerful tools?

generativelives.substack.com

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 10d

For New Year’s Day 2026, a hellenistic glass vase shaped like a pomegranate. 2nd century BC - 1st century AD.

A symbol of abundance and good luck for the year ahead!

📷 Phoenix Art phoenixancientart.com/work-of-art/...

#Archaeology

The image shows a small, rounded, purple glass vessel in the shape of a pomegranate fruit displayed against a light grey background. The display lighting enhances the translucent purple glass which replicates the colour of a ripe fruit. There is some encrustation dotted around the body of the vessel and around the calyx which has one lobe missing. Height 6.9 cm (2.7 in), Diameter 6.6 cm (2.5 in). Probably used as a container for perfumed oil.

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Keith Lilley, Adrian Vickers , and 4 more Lesley A. Hall, Keith Lilley, Adrian Vickers, Tim Hitchcock, Michael H. Whitworth, Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Lisa Colton

Brodie Waddell @brodiewaddell.bsky.social · 27d

Hooray! The British Library has just released a beta version of its rebuilt Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue: searcharchives.bl.uk

2,619 hits for 'petition' in Western Manuscripts, texts in English, in case you're curious. 🗃️

Screenshot of search for 'petition' on the BL's Archives and Manuscript catalogue

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Katrina Navickas @katrinanavickas.bsky.social · 27d

I've published my Pavia University digital mapping lecture slides and workshop notes on my website:
historyofpublicspace.uk/political-me...

Digital mapping and commemoration – contested commons

historyofpublicspace.uk

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock, Katrina Navickas, Simon Stern

IHR British History in the Long C18th Seminar @long18thsem.bsky.social · Dec 12

WINTER Term Card:

We are excited to share our seminar schedule for next term! Our slate of speakers cover a range of #18thc British history topics.

Registrations are now open (with paper abstracts) at the link below 👎

@ihr.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social

www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · Dec 11

So I am confused. The US is replacing a Dutch font with a British one. Can't they come up with anything of their own?

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Kris Inwood

Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · Dec 10

Great to see the programme for the @long18thsem.bsky.social for next term @ihrlibrary.bsky.social . You can register to attend either in person or online here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

A poster with the details for five talks, the date and location are on the left, and the names of speakers and titles on the right

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Louise Falcini @louisefalcini.bsky.social · Dec 5

I think before that there needs to be many more conversations about what that might look like and how to address IP and copyright (my personal view would be OA and non commercial). Also, funding!

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Louise Falcini @louisefalcini.bsky.social · Dec 5

More importantly, there needs to be infrastructure to support collaborative digital projects like this.

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

mia ridge @miaout.bsky.social · Dec 5

100% talk to folk at your national libraries and archives about what they're doing, and find communities of folk like #AI4LAM collaborating to find the best methods for different materials! (she said, knowing that she got an email from Colin Greenstreet this morning!)

Reposted by David Underdown

Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · Dec 5

Great to see Helen Wilson's talk on Black participation in Georgain politics available online (it starts 30 seconds in - my fault) @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social : www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Black and Political: Reconstructing Black Participation in British Politics, 1750-1850

British History in the Long 18th Century Seminar

www.history.ac.uk

Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · Dec 5

There is a lot of anxiety in the wider historical profession about AI in all forms. The OCR used for most historical projects (now going back 25 years) is just awful - a 50% error rate on semantically significant words - something most historians just want to ignore.

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Katie McDonough @kmcdono.bsky.social · Dec 5

Yep, having this as a serious element of both undergrad and postgrad history degrees is essential, and yet still mostly lacking. Kudos to departments doing this by now!

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Thiago Krause @thiagokrause.bsky.social · Dec 5

Most projects (Slave Voyages, Amsterdam Municipal Archives, etc) do very little besides giving the transcriptions side by side with images. More detailed cataloguing like the Prize Papers indeed require quite a lot of effort - although LLMs can speed that up as well.

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Adam Crymble @adamcrymble.bsky.social · Dec 5

I think I might be more inclined to language learn if a tool could help me do some of the work. Double checking remains the historians' job.

Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · Dec 5

And yet historians have been using bad online OCR for more than a generation - few of them knowing or acknowledging the ridiculously high error rates involved. The checking and the skills are desparately needed - along with the simple commitment to proper historical method.

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

British History Online @bho.bsky.social · Dec 5

British History Online is looking at using LLMs for transcription. But this is at a very early stage right now.

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Chris @missingintheslips.bsky.social · Dec 5

I am both envious of the tools now available to scholars and lost as to how anyone will be able to make sense of everything we’ll have access to. But there is already some wonderful digital history work being done, so I am optimistic for the long term—and grateful to have wrapped up my own work.

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Katie McDonough @kmcdono.bsky.social · Dec 5

NLS Data Foundry models works well, other libraries create catalog records for derived data. But it all requires lots of infrastructure & new staff that rarely gets funded.

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Katie McDonough @kmcdono.bsky.social · Dec 5

The time lag between creating transcription data & infrastructure systems to store+make them discoverable @ institutions is at the heart of this gap in established practices around who makes, evaluates, curates, preserves, and reuses derived data.

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Katrina Navickas @katrinanavickas.bsky.social · Dec 5

I'm going to a digital history workshop conference at Pavia next week, thanks to Adam, and there is a session on AI and translating archives. I'll report back.

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Katie McDonough @kmcdono.bsky.social · Dec 5

Yes - this is a big area of discussion that spans language training, historiographical background, ability to work on site as well as with scanned documents - and of course there is not only 1 correct answer - it will depend on the research aims/ experiences, and risks around archival preservation

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Katie McDonough @kmcdono.bsky.social · Dec 5

And I worry when I see historians creating this data in a personal research capacity that excludes archivists and librarians and infrastructures supporting digital collections. This raises questions about quality/evaluation of outputs, reproducibility, & more (lots more to say, maybe not here!) 2/2

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Katie McDonough @kmcdono.bsky.social · Dec 5

100% - all of my (collaborative) work with creating datasets of transcriptions/visual annotations from historical docs has been done so that these derived datasets become parts of the digital coll. where the physical collections are held, & the work is done in conversation with the curators. 1/2

Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · Dec 5

Fair enough, but I am also very aware of the extent to which many archives are simply not being worked on because of language issues. Developing cultural knowledge is the job, but creating a pathway there, seems a good thing to me.

Reposted by Tim Hitchcock

Thiago Krause @thiagokrause.bsky.social · Dec 5

I’ve talked to people at the BL and the NA who are thinking about transcription. The BL intends to fully integrate digitization and transcription at some pointX and isn’t transcription part of the Prize Papers project?