We have officially launched a major new research hub dedicated to exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are transforming society.
Based at Durham and led by Professor Louise Amoore of our Department of Geography, the Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life (CAL) brings together global experts across the humanities, social sciences and sciences.
Together, the researchers will pursue one of the most urgent questions for contemporary society: how do we wish to live with and alongside algorithmic technologies?
Our four international partners are the Universities of York, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, and Duke in North Carolina, USA, who are collaborating with us in this decade-long initiative.
Each institution will lead on one of the Centre’s major themes, exploring how we engage with AI and machine learning technologies and how they impact our lives.
For example, The University of Edinburgh will lead a research team devoted to ‘decisions’.
This will explore how algorithms are changing the way high-stakes decisions, such as military targeting, are made by combining human judgement with machine input.
A fellows exchange programme will also enable researchers to work across the partner institutions.
By combining expertise across disciplines and institutions, CAL aims not only to analyse how algorithms are reshaping societies, but also to help guide how we choose to live with them in the future.
Professor Louise Amoore, Director of CAL, said: “Our Centre will remove some of the common barriers to truly interdisciplinary work on AI and machine learning.
“Our researchers will work in thematic teams on questions such as how images and language are taking new forms in an age of AI.
“The fellows exchange programme will encourage mobility across the partner institutions.
“We are excited to launch our first recruitment call in October and we look forward to working together to reshape the field.”
CAL is supported by £10 million in funding from the Leverhulme Trust, awarded through its 2025 Research Centre competition.
The programme will run for ten years and sits alongside two other new Leverhulme Centres announced this year.
In the months ahead, CAL will begin recruiting postdoctoral fellows, doctoral students and visiting scholars.
It will also host online public events to share insights into the societal implications of algorithms.
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/central-news-and-events-images/83431-1920X290.jpg)