Dear all,
The lecture titled Beyond the Black Hole: How Humanities and Liberal Arts Can Thrive in the Age of Artificial Intelligence will be hosted at 14:00 on Monday, September 8th, in Room 302, University Library. Welcome!
Speaker: Professor Dr. Klaus Mühlhahn, born in 1963 in Konstanz, is a professor of Chinese history and culture at the Freie Universität of Berlin. From 2020 to 2025, he was the president of Zeppelin University and held the chair of Modern China Studies. Prior to that, Mühlhahn was the vice president for research, junior researchers, knowledge transfer, and spin-offs at the Free University (FU) Berlin from 2018, and in his first term from 2014 to 2018, he was the vice president for international affairs. After studying Sinology and earning his doctorate at the FU Berlin, his academic path led him from 2002 to 2004 as a visiting fellow at the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Other stations included being a professor of contemporary Chinese and Asian history at the Institute of History at the University of Turku, Finland, from 2004 to 2007, and from 2007 to 2010 as a professor of history and associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures at Indiana University Bloomington, USA, before Mühlhahn returned to the FU Berlin in the same year as a professor of Chinese history and culture. He has published numerous works on modern Chinese history in English, German, and Chinese and is a frequent commentator for the German media. His work Criminal Justice in China, published by Harvard University Press in 2009, was awarded the prestigious John K. Fairbank Prize for East Asian History by the American Historical Association. In 2019, his work Making China Modern was published by Harvard University Press. It has been translated into German, Chinese and Korean.
Abstract: The humanities face a critical juncture in the AI era: adapt or become obsolete. This talk argues for a third path—transformation and renaissance. By examining what AI cannot do—experience consciousness, exercise genuine judgment, or ask the wrong questions—we discover the irreplaceable value of humanistic inquiry. Through concrete examples and a strategic framework, the presentation shows how humanities can lead in AI ethics, human-AI collaboration, and the cultivation of wisdom in an automated world. The crisis is real, but so is the unprecedented opportunity for humanities to reclaim their essential role in human flourishing.
Host: Fan Xin, Professor of Institute of Humanities, ShanghaiTech University.
Registration link:https://wenjuan.shanghaitech.edu.cn/vm/w2uFX3h.aspx