A.I Historians and the Rise of The Hysterialists

Roll up, roll, there’s a new type of historian in town. Prepare to be amazed at their feats of knowledge and prolific amount of content being uploaded to social media and websites. Gasp at the inexplicable amount of video content they create. A volume of which seems almost uploaded at inhumanly lightning speed. Recoil in shock at headline grabbing title from the myriad of articles they produce at supernatural speed. I present to you, The Hysterialists.

Where did the name “Hysterialists” come from?

I was awake one night pondering a conversation that myself and some fellow regional historians had been having. I had already been contacted by some families in my local area complaining about this situation and it turned out that other historians in various areas were experiencing the same thing. Real historians and their years of valid, truthful, authentic research was being smothered by A.I historians! This new breed of so-called historian was becoming more and more prolific and old style, fact, well researched truth based historians were being brushed in the dust from the books and manuscripts they study.

That’s when the name came to me. They are “Hysterialists”. They thrive on shock value and bold headlines akin those found on a newspaper front page. Headlines that draw people in, and the most shocking element is that they use A.I to create to their work. If you can call it work that is.

So what is the issue with Hysterialists using A.I to create historical pieces?

Firstly there is the inaccuracy of the information being released which often contains things that did not happen. A.I can be a good resource but it has been proven to get things wrong. When it comes to something as important as retelling history it needs to be factual. If a lie or inaccurate story is retold long enough eventually it will be seen as the truth. That then changes over time how history is viewed and facts and figures become distorted, so does the view of the events involved. A two minute reel on Facebook suddenly changes what actually happened to a thing that people will remember incorrectly.

They care more about catering to algorithms. Their goal is over glorify a historical event because sometimes that piece of history might be deemed too mundane for ever hungry, lets make this stand out more, social media lifestyle.

What Other Harms Do Hysterialists Pose With Their A.I Versions of Events?

In their quest for likes, follows and subscribers they forget there is often a real life consequence of their subject matter. In regional history many people have family members that were involved with certain well known events in the regions past. The Hysterians bold headlines, shock value statements that pull you in, and often A.I imagery with similar shock value style often relates to a family that were, and are, connected to that incident. In fact I have been contacted by people that have experienced this very thing. A modern phenomenon of having something that affected your family deeply then being broadcast to the world in sensationalist ways, spouting misinformation and completely disregarding that there is a human emotional element attached to the story.

For example, the shocking and overly enthusiastic regaling of a murder with its gruesome details being used for attention seeking likes and follows, leaves a bitter taste and emotional toll on the family and descendants of that event. Add in A.I and its ability to get things wrong and it’s a very unsettling thing for the family to want to rectify but they often have no means of correcting the error. Even less the ability to be heard and their upset acknowledged.

Real events happen to real people. Those people have family and descendants.

What Lures People to Become a Hysterialist?

The main element seems to be easy gain for little work. If you are letting A.I do all the writing of articles, creating scripts for your video content, or cherry picking buzz lines for your TikTok video then you don’t have to put in the work of real research. Some may double check the facts are correct but many don’t. Real historians by definition care for genuine, authentic history. Not fabrications, sensationalism and overly exaggerated claims. They spend years studying to get to the truth of an historical event. Hysterialists enjoy getting the views, likes, follows, attention and the crown of being such a prolific source of history. Not forgetting many monetise their content so that it can create an income.

Is This a New Thing?

Sadly it is not a new thing, it is just a new way of doing an old thing.

For hundreds of years there has been people that are happy to cut corners in the pursuit of gaining what they want. Be it time, money, attention, adulation. Think back to the time when travelling circuses or sideshows would have acts that would shock and terrify. Human abnormalities would be faked to garner attention and the coin from your pocket. The bearded lady had in fact glued that hairy chin onto her face every evening for past six years. The ancient cursed items that you were allowed to view from a safe distance. A thrill that in turn relieved you of your hard earned wages whilst giving you the chance to look at something that was cobbled up in the back of a cart one Monday morning a year before.

In more modern times think of the Victorian oddities. Old broad sheets and sensational headlines of terrible tales of horror, violence and woe. Some were sadly truthful and others were just over inflated tattle that sold papers. The writers didn’t know the truth or they only knew a little, but that did not stop them putting half researched words into print.

Shock value, exaggeration, grim tales, tragedy, the macabre, and sometimes horror, sells. Even if the truth has never been near it.

The same goes for modern Hysterialists. What’s a little thing like accuracy and authenticity when they are in the pursuit of all they can claim without it. Best of all it takes far less work or research, especially when your creative partner is A.I. An artificial computer mind that makes mistakes and when it cannot make certain information line up it creates its own by marrying more than one event together.

Put simply, if you want to know the truth about a historical event would you trust the drunken old man slumped at the bar at your local pub because he missed his train home? A person not even from that area yet declares that he knows it all?

No, neither would I.

Sarah Ann Shave