The College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University has launched the Arts and Humanities AI Institute (AHAII), an innovative center that brings together scholarship, teaching, creative exploration and public engagement to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and the human experience. Developed to expand on Ohio State’s AI Fluency Initiative, which integrates AI skills and experiences into the undergraduate curriculum, AHAII will build on the college’s distinctive strengths, as well as on faculty expertise in AI foundations and applications in departments ranging from art and design to linguistics and philosophy. 

“AHAII will serve as a national model for how the arts and humanities can shape the future of AI: not merely as tools or technologies, but as cultural forces that demand ethical scrutiny, historical awareness and imaginative rethinking,” said Dean of Arts and Humanities Dana Renga.

Under the leadership of Interim Director Chris Coleman, AHAII will serve as a community hub where faculty and students can explore questions central to how humanity engages with AI; develop innovative curricula; connect with external partners to provide student internships in arts and humanities fields focused on AI; collaborate on important AI-related topics such as ethics, bias, creativity, rediscovering history, and art and technology; and use and critique AI tools to understand how they interact with arts and culture.

“At its core, AHAII positions the arts and humanities as central to defining our collective future with AI technology,” Coleman said. “Where AI Fluency is aimed at students, the institute is really about how can we also give our scholars and researchers the tools and capabilities they need to expand beyond fluency. We’re really curious as to where AI would be helpful and what we can do to empower the people who want to head down that road.”

In addition to hiring a number of tenure-track faculty who work at the intersection of arts and humanities and AI this academic year, the college is launching several academic programs with an AI focus, including undergraduate certificate programs in AI, Art and Creativity (in development); AI, Ethics and Society, and AI, Language and Mind.

AHAII also oversees a new Arts and Humanities AI Postdoctoral/Post-MFA Program for scholars who will help launch those certificate programs, as well as an Arts and Humanities AI Explorer Program for “AI-curious” faculty members who are interested in developing skills and engaging AI as an aspect of their research, creative work and teaching. 

Overall, and in addition to the bold tenure-track hiring initiative, the college is investing more than $1M in arts and humanities scholarship on AI.