About the Center
The Center for Humanistic Inquiry into Artificial Intelligence and Uncertainty (AI&U) is an autonomous research center housed within the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Center is founded on the belief that a technology as complex as AI requires cross-campus, interdisciplinary collaboration to fully understand, and serves as a hub for exploring the many uncertainties AI introduces to key social values such as equity, fairness, trustworthiness, privacy, and civic responsibility.
AI&U provides fellowships to faculty and graduate students for sustained research on these issues and curates and hosts public events that shed light on human-centered approaches to AI.
You can learn more about The Center’s mission and research both by reading our frequently asked questions listed below as well as exploring the other pages of our website.
Mission
The Center for Humanistic Inquiry into AI and Uncertainty is a collaborative hub that gathers people, ideas, and resources from across the UW-Madison community with the aim to inform scholarly and public debates around the many uncertainties AI technologies raise. The Center fosters an open-minded community of humanities scholars focused on researching AI and provides them with the dedicated time, research support, and other resources they need to produce impactful academic publications and public-facing resources.
Origins
The Center grew out of a sense among humanities scholars that important issues regarding AI were neglected in popular discourse and that humanities-focused research was best suited to address them. The Center’s work was made possible thanks to an NEH grant and university support in 2025, and began its work in the spring semester of 2026.
2026’s Research Theme: Knowledge
Each year, The Center’s research focuses on a theme pertinent to AI, which forms the basis for for a whitepaper written by that year’s fellows.
Annual Fellowships
Each year, The Center funds six total fellows to work on that year’s research theme: four fellows from across UW-Madison’s humanities departments, a graduate researcher, and an external fellow.
Events and Workshops
In accord with The Center’s belief in the value of multidisciplinary research, The Center collaborates with departments across campus on AI research and public outreach on issues connected with AI.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Center believes that AI is likely to be transformative in a way that raises far more than just technical or scientific questions. AI is already influencing how we organize society, raising deep questions about human history, political organization, values, knowledge, human self-understanding. These are topics we regard as central to understanding AI and in urgent need of greater exploration; the humanities are best suited to fulfill that need.
These three themes cut across the wide variety of humanistic inquiry taking place at UW-Madison. Questions of what we know, how we come to know, how we express what we know and who has the power to make collective decisions are fundamental for how human societies operate. Knowledge, creativity and power are also central to how we, as humans, understand ourselves and our place in the world.
The Center’s annual whitepapers will be found available on this website, and independent research conducted by the fellows will be linked in their profile.
The next public forum will be held in the Fall of 2027. If you are interested in participating or keeping up to date on the details, reach out or join our mailing list.
If you meet the criteria for being a fellow and are interested in joining us, you can find more information on the application process and requirements on the Fellowships page.
If you are interested in attending any of our events, you can visit the Events page and see when the next event you are interested in attending is.
If you are looking to partner with us for programming, or for any additional inquiries, contact us here.
The Center for Humanistic Inquiry into Artificial Intelligence and Uncertainty does not currently have job or research opportunities available for undergraduate students, although we hope to in the future.
To learn more about how undergraduates can get involved with AI&U, check out this page!