It is becoming increasingly clear that addressing the challenges involved in the development, deployment and use of responsible AI in different contexts require deeply interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to research.

The recently announced Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) Fellowships, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, seek to embrace this approach to help build the knowledge-based infrastructure needed for the UK to lead on responsible AI developments.

The field of AI comprises a complex ecosystem of actors, stakeholders, researchers, and publics. Yet as explained in a recent blog post by the programme’s co-directors Shannon Vallor and Ewa Luger concerning the UK’s AI safety summit, too often the evaluation of excellence and breakthroughs in the technology sector prioritise scientific and technical innovation over social and ethical innovation.

The first round of fellowships hopes to address this by providing a unique opportunity to explore and understand empirically the contributions that the arts and humanities can make to the AI landscape and the implications for this kind of research when applied in different disciplinary and sectoral contexts.

Research methods from the arts and humanities originate in the fields of arts, literature, philosophy, history, and cultural studies yet are invaluable tools for researchers across many disciplinary divides.

They emphasise qualitative analysis, interpretation, and subjective understanding, and allow researchers to explore complex human experiences, cultural phenomena, and social contexts.

They inform projects like the Advanced Care Research Centre, AI Forensics, Transkribus, Senseful AI and Living with Machines.

They are crucial to any technology-enabled world that seeks to support and benefit human flourishing. Yet their utility beyond core subject areas in fields like responsible AI is often underappreciated, underdeveloped and underutilised. This is a particular divide that BRAID promises to bridge.

About BRAID Fellowships

The Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) Fellowships funding opportunity is now open to help co-shape, interrogate and enrich visions of AI that support human flourishing across law, health, media, politics, policy and the arts.

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the programme is dedicated to integrating arts and humanities research and methods into the field of responsible AI (rAI) as well as bridging the divides between academic, industry, policy and regulatory work on rAI. Accordingly, research projects take the form of collaborations between academics and other stakeholders and can run for up to 18 months.

The call is open to all UK-based researchers with interdisciplinary expertise from early career onwards, and the programme wants to engage with new and underrepresented voices in the field.

Researchers are invited to respond to a series of challenges set by organisations including the BBC, Microsoft, and Ikea, as well as other stakeholders in the AI space such as Scotland's Futures Forum, Ada Lovelace Institute, NHS Digital Academy, and Diverse AI, in what are called challenge-led applications. Researchers can also devise their own challenges and bring onboard their own collaborating partners, in what are known as academic-led applications.

Challenges set include creating joyful experiences with AI as a form of individual and community empowerment, confronting issues to do with the practice of red-teaming, improving current AI inclusivity, exploring current work in the field of medical AI and gender equity, researching how AI uptake interacts with our political and legal institutions and corporate culture as well as in media and policy settings, and experimenting with how AI can enhance engagement with public museum and heritage collections.

Expressions of interest for challenge-led applications close shortly on 6 November and expressions of interest for academic-led applications close on 20 November, prior to the funding call closing on 4 December 2023.

Further details about the fellowships can be found at www.braiduk.org/fellowships