What Difference Does AI Make?

When caa.reviews added Digital Scholarship to its masthead as a distinct genre of art historical research in 2015, the publication invited new field editor Pamela Fletcher to introduce the history and range of the diverse practices known collectively as Digital Art History to its readers. Fletcher’s “Reflections on Digital Art History” remains a key work in the historiography of Digital Art History not only for its stock-taking of current research in the areas of spatial analysis, text analysis, and network analysis but for its prescient reference to AI-based technologies “still in their infancy.” In the decade since Fletcher’s “Reflections on Digital Art History” first appeared, computer vision (along with other machine-learning-based technologies like large language models) has assumed an outsized presence in art historical practice (whether deliberately invited to be part of that practice or not). This session explores the impact of computer vision and other machine-learning systems on Digital Art History, with the understanding that the term “Digital Art History” can refer to a constellation of diverse practices and/or to a cohesive field within the discipline of Art History. In what ways are AI-based technologies changing, enhancing, or even undermining the work of Digital Art History?