Center for Liberal Arts and AI

The Center for Liberal Arts and AI (CLAAI) will foster the analysis of, interpretability of, and access to AI by centering humanistic inquiry through the liberal arts. Along with supporting innovative teaching and research in AI at UR, the center will be partnering with colleges across the Associated Colleges of the South to build connections, capacity, and collaborations across the small liberal arts colleges of the region. CLAAI will launch in August 2025.

Our Purpose

AI surrounds us. CLAAI shifts the lens to center the humanities as key to understanding the opportunities, challenges, and consequences of AI. Along with the pursuit of cutting-edge research, small liberal arts colleges are designed around the idea that the next generation of thinkers benefit from a well-rounded education that brings together humanities, social sciences, sciences and the arts. Our commitment to small classes, undergraduate research, and interdisciplinary scholarship offers an ideal environment to pursue cutting-edge scholarship and learning in AI.

The center will focus around four areas:
1. Develop collaborative research through Research Fellowships.
2. Increase course offerings on the ethical issues that arise within AI and ways we can use AI to address pressing social issues through Course Transformation and Professional Development Grants.
3. Expand access to AI methods through in-person and digital workshops and talks.
4. Support knowledge sharing and creation within and beyond Richmond by building on UR’s strength in Visual AI.

The National Endowment for the Humanities is pioneering a national effort to center humanities perspectives in artificial intelligence. We are proud to be a part of their efforts to amplify important conversations and debates about the ethical, legal, and social implications of AI through their Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence.

Partners

Associated Colleges of the South, a consortium of 15 small liberal arts colleges in the southern United States including historically black colleges, religiously-affiliated institutions, and nonsectarian-private institutions from Texas to Virginia.