A Turning Point in Oral History: From the Digital Recorder to the Times of Artificial Intelligence through Hermeneutics

ABSTRACT This article analyses the impacts of the digital turn on oral history, from the popularization of the digital recorder in the mid-2000s to Artificial Intelligence technologies. It argues that digital transformations have opened up new methodological, ethical and hermeneutic perspectives. Digitization has enabled advances such as remote interviews and automated transcriptions, but has prompted proposals for advances beyond these practices. Integration with generative AI challenges conventional interpretations, suggesting hybrid approaches. The conclusion is that the digital turn has broadened the horizons of the field, while maintaining a commitment to oral memory and its complexities.