Why Humanities and Social Sciences Matter for Today’s AI Landscape
Sponsored by Springer Nature
Recorded on 06/04/2025
Posted in The Authority File
Episode 428
This month, Anil Chandy, VP of Humanities, Social Sciences Books & Focus Projects at Springer Nature, joins The Authority File to apply a Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) lens to artificial intelligence. Sharing his publisher perspective, Anil reflects on how HSS disciplines regarded AI before and after the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. Further, he chats about current AI guidelines produced by publishers and how they’re influenced by initiatives put forth by governing bodies or technological organizations. Highlighting both areas for concern and the potential benefits of AI in the publishing lifecycle, Anil underscores the need for HSS approaches to this technology—both in studying the creative uses of large language models and scrutinizing its ethical and social implications.
In the first episode of this four-part series, Anil explains how his role at Springer Nature intersects with AI technology and provides a broad overview of HSS coverage of AI. In addition, he charts HSS discussions of AI pre- and post the launch of large language models for public use as theoretical ideas steadily became a reality. Finally, Anil explores the tension between supporting the democratization of knowledge—a key tenet of HSS studies—and ensuring copyright protections from AI scraping.
Access the episode transcript. Please note that the transcript was generated by Zoom’s automated captioning and is not a perfect transcription.
About the guest:
Anil Chandy
VP of Humanities, Social Sciences Books & Focus Projects
Springer Nature
Anil Chandy is VP of Humanities, Social Sciences Books & Focus Projects at Springer Nature and Managing Director of Springer Nature’s Singapore office. He leads an international editorial team publishing over 5000 academic titles annually in all humanities, social sciences, business and management, economics, politics, international relations and law under the Springer and Palgrave Macmillan imprints as well as the German language imprints of Springer Gabler, Springer VS and JB Metzler. Apart from leading commissioning and publishing teams, Anil has also managed technology and data teams involved in software development and workflow solutions for Springer Nature. Prior to joining Springer Nature, he worked at Sage, OUP and Deloitte Consulting. Anil is a member of the Board of Directors of the Copyright, Licensing Administration Society of Singapore and also a member of the Singapore Institute of Directors.
Enjoy the conversation? Listen to the rest of the series:
- How Publishers Are Building AI Regulation—and Who They’re Looking to for Guidance
- Balancing AI Applications in Publishing with Human Oversight
- How Academic Libraries and HSS Can Shape AI Policy
Check out our previous series with Springer Nature:
– Springer Nature’s Adoption and Scale of the SDGs
– Supporting the Sustainable Development Goals
– Introducing Nature Mental Health
– Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIM) & Ethics
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