UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) recently announced the results of its second seed funding competition, awarding more than $96,000 to advance seven interdisciplinary research projects that feature researchers from 11 colleges and institutes.
Each proposal was evaluated for its connection to the center’s mission, intellectual merit, and potential for securing external funding. Funding will support the formation of interdisciplinary research teams and early-stage projects that demonstrate strong potential to obtain external funding.
“The awarded projects not only expand the center’s portfolio of socially responsible AI projects, but also foster innovative collaborations across a number of disciplines, from civil engineering to psychiatry,” said S. Shyam Sundar, CSRAI director and James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. “The eclectic projects include using AI to provide better health and educational opportunities to underrepresented minorities, designing more socially responsible AI for autonomous vehicles, examining risks associated with attributing magical qualities, and assigning moral decision-making to AI systems, among other ambitious ideas that will explore novel and important areas connected to the center’s mission.”
The seven projects selected for funding include:
The Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence, which launched in 2019, promotes high-impact, transformative AI research and development, while encouraging the consideration of social and ethical implications in all such efforts. It supports a broad range of activities from foundational research to the application of AI to all areas of human endeavor. More information can be found on the CSRAI website.
