About this Research Topic
However, the lack of transparency of convolutional neural networks also raises a number of epistemological issues. Indeed, the generalization of tools that perform extremely well but lack explicitness in their inner functioning can be problematic. What will be the impact of Deep Learning algorithms on scholarship? Will it be possible for scholars to train machines instead of programming them? Will convolutional networks be at the basis of new research methodologies? Will they open to a new kind of hermeneutics?
At a more societal level, to what extent can Digital Humanities research help to assess the increasing role of Deep Learning algorithms in everyday digital interactions? Can we detect when Deep Learning algorithms perform censorship or surveillance services? Can we add an ethical dimension to their functioning, avoiding for instance the use of particular discriminating features in their decisions? Can we use other algorithms to map and make explicit the functioning of Deep Learning networks?
This Research Topic welcomes all contributions that deal with Deep Learning applications to Cultural Heritage, Image, Textual and Musical scholarship, and Digital Humanities in general, or that question the societal and cultural impacts of the rapid rise of this technology.
Keywords: Deep Learning, Convolutional Neural Networks, Digital Humanities, Big Data, Hermeneutics, Epistemology, Digital Art History, Digital Musicology, Digital Literary studies
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.