What is HAIL?
The Humanities and Artificial Intelligence Lab (HAIL) is an interdisciplinary, student-centered working group that brings together BU undergraduate and graduate students to explore social, political and ethical questions raised by AI. HAIL places an emphasis on examining the sometimes overlooked value-laden considerations that researchers and practitioners use to guide their work, and by asking how these considerations shape which normative questions are treated as salient, and which are sidelined, within and between the humanities and technically oriented fields. In this way, the lab aims to create a space in which different methodologies and background assumptions can be brought into conversation without imposing a single framework from which to ask the questions raised by AI.
If you have any questions, please read this FAQ or send us an email at buhail@bu.edu
Spring 2026
Spring 2026 is our first semester, with twelve participating students from disciplines including Philosophy, Political Science, Economics, Psychology, Neuroscience, and Data Science. We will focus on ethical, social, and political questions raised by AI, drawing on AI-related initiatives already taking place at Boston University. The group will reflect on how the humanities are understood and woven into AI research, teaching, and governance at BU, and on the moments when this engagement takes place.
The semester will culminate in a deliverable, written by the students, that articulates what BU’s priorities with respect to incorporating humanistic perspectives into their approach to AI ought to be.
In the Spring 2026, we will meet on Mondays at 4 pm.
The HAIL team:
Daniel Munro, Assistant Professor, Philosophy.
Seth Villegas, Lecturer, Computing and Data Sciences.
Pol Pardini Gispert, PhD Candidate, Philosophy.
Anika Mukherjee, Undergraduate Senior, Political Science & Data Science.