Narrating the Past with Algorithms: Artificial Intelligence and Historical Visuality

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12957/intellectus.2026.96476

Keywords:

Artificial Intelligence, Visuality, TikTok, Digital Humanities

Abstract

This article analyzes the production and circulation of historical narratives generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) on TikTok, taking the @timeportals profile as a case study. It approaches the platform as an algorithmic infrastructure for content circulation, within which historical narratives are produced at scale, monetized, and widely consumed. The research combines netnography, case study, and a hermeneutics of practice to examine narrative formats, algorithmic visualities, and temporalities mobilized in AI-generated videos. Drawing on the analyzed corpus, a typology composed of three predominant narrative visualities is proposed: immersive testimony visuality, condensed temporality visuality, and anachronistic visuality of historicity. It argues that these narratives reconfigure notions of authorship, evidence, and historical authority, while also producing anachronisms, teleologies, and disputes over meaning, thereby revealing ethical and epistemic tensions inherent to the platformization of the past.

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Author Biographies

Gabriel Antonio Butzen, Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP)

PhD candidate in History in the Graduate Program in History (PPGHIS) at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), supported by a scholarship from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). Holds an MA in History from PPGHIS at the Federal University for Latin American Integration (UNILA), where he also completed a teaching degree in History and a specialization in Teaching Latin American History. He also holds a degree in Philosophy (distance learning) from Centro Universitário Internacional UNINTER. He is the creator of the TikTok profile @gabrielantoniobutzen, focused on public history and science communication, with over 41,000 followers. He publishes content and reflections on history, history education, and the Brazilian military dictatorship, engaging with digital languages and broader audiences. For his work on TikTok, he received the Fórum Saberes Históricos seal and is a signatory of its ethical commitment letter. He received an honorable mention from the Brazilian Society for Theory and History of Historiography (SBTHH) in the 2023 award for best dissertation in General Historiography. He also received an honorable mention for an undergraduate research project carried out at UNILA in 2018. His main research interests include theory and history of historiography, public history, and digital history. He is also a member of the National Association of History (ANPUH) and the Brazilian Society for Theory and History of Historiography (SBTHH).

Tereza M. Spyer Dulci, Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) / Federal University for Latin American Integration (UNILA)

BA and Teaching Degree in History from the University of São Paulo (USP), with an MA and PhD in Social History from the same institution. Holds specializations in: (1) Epistemologies of the South, (2) Afro–Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and (3) Collective Memories, Human Rights and Resistance, all from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO). Completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Centro de Investigaciones sobre América Latina y el Caribe (CIALC) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Between 2011 and 2023, she was a professor at the Federal University for Latin American Integration (UNILA). She remains affiliated with this university, working in the Specialization Program in History Teaching and Latin America (EHAL), the Graduate Program in Contemporary Integration of Latin America (PPGICAL), and the Graduate Program in History (PPGHIS). She is currently a professor in the Department of History (DEHIS) at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), where she also teaches in the Graduate Program in History (PPGHIS). She has experience in the fields of Latin American History and the History of International Relations. She is editor-in-chief of Revista Espirales (UNILA) and Revista Laje (UFBA). She is a member of the National Association of History (ANPUH) and the National Association of Researchers and Professors of the History of the Americas (ANPHLAC), and served as president of the latter from 2020 to 2022.

References

Fontes

TIMEPORTALS. ANCIENT EGYPT VLOG. TikTok, 30 de junho de 2025. Disponível em: <https://www.tiktok.com/@timeportals/video/7521873213136162070>. Acesso em: 30 mar. 2026.

TIMEPORTALS. Evolution of India. TikTok, 14 abril 2025. Disponível em: <https://www.tiktok.com/@timeportals/video/7504379452235746582>. Acesso em: 30 mar. 2026.

TIMEPORTALS. History Interviews Part 1. TikTok, 6 de junho de 2025. Disponível em: <https://www.tiktok.com/@timeportals/video/7512714641949150486>. Acesso em: 30 mar. 2026.

TIMEPORTALS. POV: You Time Traveled to Rome year 476. TikTok, 28 de novembro de 2024. Disponível em: <https://www.tiktok.com/@timeportals/video/7442410010836995350>. Acesso em: 30 mar. 2026.

TIMEPORTALS. POV: You wake up as a Pyramid Builder in 1550 BCE. TikTok, 13 de fevereiro de 2025. Disponível em: <https://www.tiktok.com/@timeportals/video/7470947021009161474>. Acesso em: 30 mar. 2026.

TIMEPORTALS. The Evolution Of Louis Vuitton 1821 – Age 0. TikTok, 14 de abril de 2025. Disponível em: <https://www.tiktok.com/@timeportals/video/7493209608266239254>. Acesso em: 30 mar. 2026.

TIMEPORTALS. YOUR BIRTH MONTH = YOUR ERA IN HISTORY – PART 1. TikTok, 12 de janeiro de 2025. Disponível em: <https://www.tiktok.com/@timeportals/video/7459117967008107798>. Acesso em: 30 mar. 2026.

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Published

2026-07-13

How to Cite

BUTZEN, Gabriel Antonio; DULCI, Tereza M. Spyer. Narrating the Past with Algorithms: Artificial Intelligence and Historical Visuality. Intellèctus, Rio de Janeiro, v. 25, n. 2, p. 113–142, 2026. DOI: 10.12957/intellectus.2026.96476. Disponível em: https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/intellectus/article/view/96476. Acesso em: 20 sep. 2026.

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2026): Intellectuals, Discourses, and Platforms: AI, Digital Humanities, and the Public Sphere in Latin America

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Copyright (c) 2026 Gabriel Antonio Butzen, Tereza M. Spyer Dulci

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