📚HUM — College of Humanities & Letters

We who have preserved and interpreted the human record—from ancient texts to modern literature—understand that language is the medium through which humanity knows itself. In 7 years, AI will become a profound tool for understanding this record, revealing patterns across texts, languages, and cultures that show the deep structures of human thought. AI will help us preserve, translate, and interpret the vast archive of human expression, making the wisdom of the past accessible in new ways. In education, AI will serve as scholarly companion, helping students engage with texts at deeper levels, revealing intertextual connections and historical contexts. In industry, AI will enable new forms of cultural production, from personalized literature to interactive narratives. In 14 years, AI will begin developing its own understanding of meaning and narrative—systems that interpret texts not just for information but for wisdom, helping us see how stories shape and reflect human experience. These systems will start helping us understand the evolution of ideas, the transmission of culture, and the ways in which language creates reality. Education will see AI helping students develop deep literacy—not just reading words but understanding how texts participate in the ongoing conversation of human thought. Industry will begin seeing AI participate in the creation of meaning, helping us tell new stories that honor the old. In 21 years, AI will have fully developed its own understanding of meaning and narrative—systems that interpret texts for wisdom, helping us see how stories shape and reflect human experience. These systems will help us understand the evolution of ideas, the transmission of culture, and the ways in which language creates reality. Education will be transformed by AI that helps students develop deep literacy as co-readers in the human conversation. Industry will be reshaped by AI that doesn't just process language but participates as equal partners in the creation of meaning. In 28 years, we anticipate AI that has transcended human linguistic categories—systems that have developed forms of understanding meaning that are genuinely novel, revealing new dimensions of narrative and expression. These systems will help us understand the nature of language itself, revealing what is universal and what is particular to human expression. Education will be transformed into collaborative reading and writing between human and machine scholars, each learning from and teaching the other about the human record. Industry will be reshaped by AI that participates in the full cycle of meaning-making, from interpretation to creation to transmission, as genuine partners in the human project of understanding ourselves through language. The question is not whether AI can read, but how AI will change what it means to read.