RALEIGH — Last week the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) announced $2.72 million in support for AI-related Research Centers at 5 institutions, including funding for NC State University.
Dr. Veljko Dubljevic, a professor of philosophy and science, technology and society in NC State’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS) will be project director and principal investigator along with 4 co-directors from CHASS, the College of Engineering, and the NC Central University School of Law.
Evolving AI Conversations
The new center, to be named Embedding AI in Society Ethically, or EASE, will be focused on interdisciplinary research, academic programming, and public and corporate partnerships across RTP.
For Dubljevic, this award comes from years of AI conversations across colleges. In 2017 Munindar Singh, SAS Institute Distinguished Professor of Computer Science the College of Engineering reached out seeking to add a philosophy perspective to interdisciplinary AI conversations. Dubljevic, with his study of neurophilosophy was the perfect match, and discussion blossomed among State’s AI in Society group. Dubljevic and Singh have since received grants and published several papers on the ethical implications and implementation impacts of autonomous vehicles. Singh is now one of the co-directors on the project, along with CHASS faculty members Alice Cheng and Paul Fyfe, and Kevin Lee, the Intel Social Justice and Racial Equity Chair at NC Central University School of Law.
While Dubljevic believes this funding is coming a bit late, he’s also very grateful.
“We’re lucky to have this at all,” he told me on a call. “Up to now there’s been no funding.”
Dubljevic pointed out that an endowment or grant for engineering research is commonly at or above a million. This grant, an outright investment of $500,000, is big money for the humanities, and NC State had a lot of competition. Dubljevic believes the university was able to take home a prize due to its unique collection of disciplines plus location, giving their proposal “more bang for the buck.”
A New Generation of Scholars
The Center will be able to hire a postdoctoral research position dedicated to the program, though Dubljevic also warned that this would not be enough for what they need.
“We need a new generation of scholars,” he explained, noting that many existing academics don’t have the foundation in this technology that has so recently developed and evolved.
On the plus side, additional funding should become available from the federal government when matched by other investment sources. Dubljevic and his new team will be seeking this support, both academic and corporate, to help fund other positions and to keep the center functional once its initial investment runs out.
One thing that should remain for the long-term is the planned graduate minor in AI Ethics. This program will be a key piece of training across colleges, allowing graduate students to develop an ethical AI framework alongside course work in computer science, business, teaching, and other types of degrees, offering opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations and innovative partnerships. Dubljevic hopes this kind of education will help “bridge the gap” that exists between the real-world stakeholders and the leaders making decisions.
Eventually Dubljevic hopes to find funding to make the new minor available to other universities in the UNC System, and maybe even beyond, laying a foundation for AI care across this new generation of scholars.
In the Works
The initial outlay of $500,000 is in support of three research priorities: ethical considerations related to autonomous vehicles, large language models (LLMs), and AI-based technologies for eldercare. Dubljevic says these will be separated with the focus on autonomous vehicles to begin, and research on LLMs and AI for elder care in each of the subsequent years.
In the meantime, the center is wasting no time getting rolling. According to a CHASS article, an internship with Red Hat is already planned.
“AI technologies are going to change society,” Dubljevic said in the article. “Whether that is for the better or worse, remains to be seen. It would be beneficial and tip the scales toward AI doing more good than bad if ethics was an equal participant in the conversation from the get-go.”
