At the University of North Carolina, “AI Powers Research Into Film’s Past”

From the UNC College of Arts and Sciences:

More than a decade ago, Carolina film historian Martin Johnson stumbled upon an archive documenting more than 10,000 forgotten films at the Library of Congress.

The collection contained an index of films made in the span of just six years, 1915–1920, but held a dizzying amount of data to sift through, even for a seasoned film researcher.

“I could have spent months going through the microfilm and looking at these several hundred thousand index cards, but that really seemed impractical,” said Johnson, an associate professor of English and comparative literature in the College of Arts and Sciences. “This collection was just too massive to get my head around.”

That was until 2023, when Johnson met AI expert Rolando Rodriguez and the Library Data Services team at the University Library. Together, Johnson and Rodriguez are using generative AI to revisit, catalog and analyze the index cards — and uncover their importance in motion picture history.

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