Why Primary Sources Matter More Than Ever in the Age of AI
Beyond the Bullet Points
These days, it’s common to turn to AI summaries for answers to internet queries. Sometimes this isn’t even deliberate; Google has AI Overviews turned on by default. So, unless you use the web filter, any internet query on Google will take you to an AI summary before showing organic results. Students take advantage of this function, reaching for AI summaries the way earlier generations used CliffsNotes. They provide a quick way to get the gist of a complicated topic.
As a history teacher, I use these tools myself, and I recognize their convenience. However, I have grown increasingly concerned about the degree to which students rely on AI summaries as a substitute for actual research. This is especially concerning because AI summaries leave out so much.
Throughout my career, I have stressed the importance of reading primary sources for a well-rounded history education. Given the way AI continues to reshape the field of education, I am convinced that studying primary sources is more important than ever. Here’s why…
Primary Sources Introduce Us to Historical Ways of Speaking
AI is designed to be helpful. This means AI summaries are written to be fast, concise overviews that distill large amounts of text into key points using predictive language patterns. They aim to save time and make complex information accessible. However, they often lack deep context or nuance.
While this has its place, it is a far cry from the cultural immersion one gets from studying a primary source. Reading primary sources introduces us to diverse ways of speaking and thinking that one cannot get from an AI summary. Anyone who has read even a modest amount of historical documentation has encountered this. Texts composed in ancient Egypt, medieval China, and Victorian-era England all sound radically different from each other. Primary source texts reflect the literary culture and “voice” of the civilization which produced them.
There is a world of difference between reading a first-hand account of the Battle of Gettysburg and getting an AI summary of the event.
Primary Sources Introduce us to the Nuance and Intricacy of History
One thing I have noticed about AI historical summaries is that they often lack nuance. Their purpose is to summarize complex information, which means they tend toward streamlined simplifications and reductions of intricate historical events into their most compacted, abridged forms. I have caught it on multiple occasions giving gross oversimplifications.
Now, to be fair, when I ask for more explanation or detail, the AI obliges and provides more context. But I am a history teacher who already knows there is more context. A student who doesn’t realize there is more to the story likely wouldn’t bother to ask. Not to mention that sometimes the AI summary is simply wrong altogether!
I understand that a summary is a summary and sometimes we just need a very basic overview. If we are earnest about understanding history, however, we need to dig into the weeds of very complex events. Sometimes there is no consensus. Sometimes there is no easy way to distill something down into a few bullet points without missing the point entirely.
Primary Sources Make Us Think Analytically
Large language models are designed to do the heavy work of analysis for us. They take a question, do the analysis, and provide us with the output. Results are delivered stripped of the mental work necessary to arrive at them. There are times when this is convenient, but it can also do us a great disservice in matters where we want to develop our analytical thinking.
The study of history is a prime example. History is the study of causes and effects: understanding why a certain cause led to a specific chain of events. Primary sources compel this analysis in various ways. They require synthesis: primary sources don’t give us a comprehensive picture; rather, they give us a snapshot of a place in time that requires us to put them together with other pieces of information to get a big picture. They also need analytical reading, as obscure documents written in older forms of speech often require us to use context clues to interpret what it is saying. A primary source also requires critical scrutiny—Is the author telling the truth or exaggerating? Does the text harbor a bias towards a certain viewpoint?
AI-generated summaries do not require anything close to this level of critical thinking.
Primary Sources Help Us Understand the Opinions of Historical People
When you read a first-person account of a historical event, you are stepping into the world of that author’s opinions and imagination. You get access to the author’s worldview; you are immersed in his or her account of how things are and how they ought to be. This is absolutely essential for understanding the peoples of the past. It is also something you don’t get from AI historical summaries. There is a world of difference between reading an AI bullet point that the Germans invaded Poland in 1939 and reading Hitler’s Obersalzburg Speech in which he laid out his frightening vision for Poland under German rule. It is one thing to have an AI tell you that the Irish and English monks had a dispute in the 7th century about monastic customs; it is another thing to read the polemics of this dispute preserved in the writings of St. Bede.
A mature understanding of history requires us to understand the opinions of past individuals and cultures, and there is no better way to get this perspective than to read it from their own mouths.
Conclusion
I do not mean to devalue AI summaries entirely. There are certainly times when an AI summary is suitable or even preferable. Not even a casual internet query requires an academic deep dive. Even so, students should be made aware of the real limits of AI summaries when it comes to learning complex subjects like history, whose very nature requires a more immersive study than what AI summaries offer. Primary source study remains as important as ever today, perhaps even more so than ever before.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Join me and other homeschooling parents in the Homeschool Connections Facebook Group or in the HSC Community to continue the conversation.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mr. Campbell has also written on the topic of primary sources here:
