A humanistic look at AI
Artificial Intelligence and the Human
The Humanities Institute is committed to fostering collaboration, research, and conversation on artificial intelligence (AI) and the human. As artificial intelligence technologies, including large language model text generators like ChatGPT, become increasingly common and commercially available, we need scholars from all disciplines to help us make sense of the role they play in our world and to understand their values and pitfalls.
Science alone cannot provide the wisdom we need to navigate both the challenges and possibilities offered by artificial intelligence.
Events
To better analyze the role of AI in our world, we bring together scholars of different disciplines to consider topics like whether chatbots and human beings can have meaningful relationships or what it means for artists to collaborate with AI.
2023–24 Events
Can You Fall in Love with ChatGPT? A panel discussion
October 23, 2023 4:00pm–5:30pm, Konover Auditorium
A panel discussion and live podcast recording featuring AI expert Dan Rockmore (Dartmouth College), Anna Mae Duane (Director, UCHI), Stephen Dyson (Associate Director, UCHI), and Jeffrey Dudas (UConn Political Science).
How will current and next generation AI reshape our understanding of conversation, companionship, and even love?
Artificial Intelligence and Artistic Endeavor: Pushing the Boundaries of Collaboration and Creativity
April 18, 2024, 3:00pm, Heritage Room
A roundtable discussion with Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, human rights expert and member of an artists’ collective; Kyle Booten, co-founder of a literary journal dedicated to human-AI co-authored works; and Sue Huang, a visual artist who collaborates with AI. Together, they will explore how AI challenges us to reassess and redefine the concepts of collaboration and creativity.
Humanistic AI Working Group
The Humanistic AI Working Group brings together faculty from across campus, and across disciplines, to share research, resources, and funding opportunities, and to collaborate on this vital area of research.
Those interested in joining the group should contact Nasya Al-Saidy.
Bringing the Past to the Future
The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a two-year grant of nearly $140,000 to the University of Connecticut for the Humanities Institute (UCHI) to investigate how legacies of slavery are shaping the perception and reception of conversational artificial intelligence. This project, “Bringing the Past to the Future: Slavery and Artificial Intelligence on the Battleground of Popular Culture,” involves the development of a podcast series and scholarly book chapters analyzing how persistent narratives of slavery and servitude have influenced popular understanding of artificial intelligence and humans’ ethical engagement with emerging technologies.
Collaborations
UCHI is a partner in the Design Justice AI Institute, a Global Humanities Institute sponsored by the CHCI and the Mellon Foundation, which took place June 30–July 13th in Pretoria. The project is led by the Rutgers Center of Cultural Analysis, along with the Humanities Research Centre at ANU, the Center for Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria. It examines the rapid diffusion of so-called generative AI–machine learning technologies that simulate human languages, communication, arts, and cultures.
UCHI and Global Affairs are partnering with Université Internationale de Rabat (UIR) in Morocco on an international working group on AI and the Humanities—part of a larger collaboration between UIR and UConn.
Fellowships
Each year, UCHI offers residential fellowships for UConn faculty. As part of our mid-career faculty success initiative, one fellowship each year will be awarded to a faculty member who has held the rank of Associate Professor for at least five years. We also offer one UCHI/Faculty of Color Working Group Faculty Fellowship each year. The UCHI/FOCWG fellowship is intended for full-time UConn faculty members from historically disadvantaged minority groups and/or those whose projects specifically confront institutional blocks for BIPOC faculty. Applications for all faculty fellowships are due February 1.
