Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence

Overview

AI is one of the most powerful technologies of our time and will have profound consequences for civil rights and civil liberties, safety and security, and democratic values. Questions about the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI are fundamentally rooted in the humanities, which include ethics, law, history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, media studies, and cultural studies. In fall 2023, NEH will launch a major research initiative titled Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence to support research and development in the humanities to understand and address the ethical, legal, and societal consequences of AI. NEH is particularly interested in projects that explore the risks of AI-related technologies on truth, trust, and democracy; safety and security; and privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.

The Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence program addresses Strategy #3 of the 2023 National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan, put forth by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Strategy #3 calls for research into “the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI” in order to “understand, anticipate, and mitigate harm as well as [understand] the distribution of likely benefits.” The Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence program will create new Centers of scholarly discourse and learning, each one a nexus for collaborative efforts that reach across disciplinary lines to gain a more holistic understanding of AI in the modern world.

In your application to this program, you must propose to create a Center with a specific research focus related to the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI. A Center is a sustained collaboration among scholars focused on exploring a specific topic, the humanities implications of AI, through two or more related scholarly activities. NEH particularly encourages Centers interested in equity, privacy, and civil-rights topics. Existing AI research centers are not eligible in this competition.

Centers must involve more than one scholar. A Center may or may not have a physical location, but as part of your project you should establish a leadership structure, develop a mission statement, and create a strategy to sustain the Center beyond the period of performance.

In addition to the establishment of the Center, your project should engage in at least two activities that support research into the ethical, legal, and social implications of AI. Appropriate activities may include, but are not limited to, collaborative research and writing efforts; workshops or lecture series; education and mentoring; and the creation of digital tools to increase or advance scholarly discourse about AI.

You must propose outcomes that contribute to the creation and long-term development and sustainability of your Humanities Research Center. All project outcomes must address the Center’s chosen thematic focus and convey interpretive humanities work.

Your project must result in a leadership structure, a mission statement, and an institutional plan for long-term sustainability by the end of the first year of the period of performance. Additional outcomes may include, but are not limited to:

• a lecture series extending beyond the period of performance
• a workshop series, colloquia, or summer institute to explore the impact of AI
• digital infrastructure for enabling multi-disciplinary or multi-institutional research about the humanistic implications of AI
• curriculum development or training courses for AI literacy in the humanities
• a multi-authored book, peer-reviewed articles in academic journals, or articles for the general public, or both

To be competitive for this program, you should propose to accomplish at least two such outcomes during the period of performance.

ASU may submit only one application under this notice. The internal application is available on Info Ready.

Centers should include scholars from multiple disciplines, but they must be led by scholars in the humanities or humanistic social sciences. 

You may request a period of performance up to 36 months with a start date between October 1, 2024, and September 1, 2025.

The period of performance is the time during which you may incur expenses to carry out the work under the award. It must start on the first day of the month and end on the last day of the month.