Lingnan University in Hong Kong has opened a free online platform that teaches the public how to use artificial intelligence to study history. The tool also shows users how to spot AI-generated images and check historical sources.
The platform is called the Lingnan Guide to Digital and AI Humanities. It was built by the university’s Department of History and is available in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and English.
Prof An Bo, a Research Assistant Professor in the department, led the project. The content is arranged step by step, so users can learn practical skills from the beginning through demonstrations on the website.
A Focus on Checking Facts
One part of the platform deals with a growing problem. The university said it is now hard to tell AI-generated images apart from real ones.
The platform uses real examples and analysis to show how to identify AI-generated images. It also teaches users how to use such images with a sense of history.
Prof An said developing critical thinking is one of the key values of history education in the digital era. He said the platform gives the public skills to organise large amounts of historical material, verify facts and carry out analysis.
He added that in a time of information overload, digital tools can help people check sources on their own. He said they can also help users separate reliable information from false claims and use AI tools responsibly.
The platform also lets users pull people, places and events out of texts to build relationship networks. Users can test a text analysis tool that the team developed on its own, using their own documents.
From Classroom Tool to Public Resource
The platform began as a teaching resource for the university’s Master of Arts in Chinese History and Digital Humanities. The university said this is the first master’s programme of its kind in the Hong Kong SAR and the Asia-Pacific region.
The team noticed that the public had limited access to organised tools for learning digital history. It decided to revise its internal teaching materials so a wider audience could use them.
After a year of development and refinement, the platform is now open to the public free of charge. The university said the goal is to encourage good use of new technology while building humanistic literacy and critical thinking.
Users can see how historical materials become data that can be processed, analysed and presented. One example uses three-dimensional reconstruction, guided by historical evidence, to recreate buildings that no longer exist.
The platform uses Swasey Hall on Lingnan’s former Guangzhou campus as a case study for this method. It also reproduces sounds from the former campus.
Another feature places a map of the old campus from nearly a century ago over a present-day map. This lets users compare the landscape of the past and present at a glance.
The project fits within Lingnan’s “Liberal Arts + Technology” development model. The university has been promoting “AI+” and fields such as data science through an approach that combines the arts and sciences.
Prof An said the team plans to launch a second interactive platform to go with the guide. It will include easy-to-use AI agents that follow user prompts to help organise materials, analyse content and support research work.
