The Doing AI Differently initiative challenges traditional approaches to AI development by positioning humanities perspectives as integral—rather than supplemental—to technical innovation.
London Workshop, Date & Venue:
- Date: Thursday, 13 March 2025, 10am-4pm
- Location: The Royal Academy of Engineering (Prince Philip House), London SW1
- Working group sessions: continue on Friday, 14 March 2025, 10am-4pm
- Aligned with the Alan Turing Institute’s major annual conference (AIUK) on 17-18 March
The workshop is an early opportunity to discover and help to refine the research vision and topic scope for an Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC–UKRI) International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) funding call launching April 2025. This call will focus on UK, US and Canadian collaborations.
Core Challenges
1. Developing Interpretive Technologies.
Leveraging current AI architectures to implement deeper interpretive capabilities, developing approaches to represent multiple perspectives and capture semantic depth while maintaining computational tractability.
2. Exploring Alternative AI Architectures.
Exploring fundamentally new approaches to AI design that move beyond current limitations in foundation models and gradient-based learning to enable more pluralistic and culturally adaptive AI systems.
3. Advancing Human-AI Ensembles
Moving beyond simple substitution or assistance models, to foster new relationships between human and artificial intelligence, each contributing unique capabilities to achieve outcomes neither could accomplish alone.
Initiative Objectives:
1. Develop pilot projects demonstrating humanities-driven technical advances in AI
2. Establish funding mechanisms fostering interdisciplinary partnerships
3. Create scalable pathways for humanities scholars to participate in large-scale AI projects
Expected Outcomes:
– New paradigms for addressing complex, context-dependent tasks in AI
– Enhanced AI tools for deep contextual analysis across disciplines
– AI systems better aligned with societal values and ethical considerations
The rapid advances in increasingly sophisticated AI systems makes this timing critical, and we seek to develop inclusive, research-led ideas that will provide practical ways to address some of the recommendations set out in the recent UK Government AI Opportunities Action Plan. This initiative adds the opportunities for research and innovation in AI – artificial intelligence – in the UK (see Transforming our world with AI).
More Information:
- View our complete vision statement: doingaidifferently.org
- To attend please complete an expression of interest HERE by 17 February 2025. We will be in touch to confirm your attendance by 19 February 2025.
- A limited number of bursaries are available to support travel costs for participants who do not have other institutional support. See expression of interest form for details.
- Capacity for the in-person workshop is limited. The workshop will also be available to stream online, with some opportunities for interaction for remote participants.
- A list of recommended hotels is available on request.