university:

Rutgers University

funding_signals:

NEH grants (including Unboxing AI and DESIGN JUSTICE LABS), $250,000 Mellon/CHCI award for Design Justice AI (July 2024), NSF planning grant english.rutgers.edu.

likelihood_score: 96

existing_initiative:

Critical AI @ Rutgers, Design Justice Labs, Critical AI journal

university:

Bard College

funding_signals:

$500,000 NEH grant (August 2024) neh.gov, $93,000 Wagner Foundation grant (July 2025), $50 million endowment for Native American and Indigenous Studies.

likelihood_score: 95

existing_initiative:

Wiháŋble S’a Center for Indigenous AI, Abundant Intelligences network

university:

Colorado College

funding_signals:

$1.5 million Mellon Foundation grant announced May 2026 for course development, summer research, and faculty learning communities.

likelihood_score: 94

existing_initiative:

Generative Futures: Critical Language Inquiry in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

university:

Cornell University

funding_signals:

Internal AI & Society Seed Grants (up to $75k) for Fall 2026, 45 faculty funded in current AI cycle, new vice provost for AI strategy (Jan 2026).

likelihood_score: 94

existing_initiative:

Digital Humanities Initiative, AI & Society Seed Grants

university:

University of Oxford

funding_signals:

Institute moved to Schwarzman Centre with £185 million in gifts (Oct 2025), 5-year Schwarzman Accelerator Fellowship (March 2025), British Academy funding.

likelihood_score: 94

existing_initiative:

Institute for Ethics in AI, Oxford Internet Institute

university:

Stony Brook University

funding_signals:

New York State committed $5 million over three years (April 2025) for hiring and fellowships, PRODIG+ fellow appointment.

likelihood_score: 94

existing_initiative:

Department of Technology, AI and Society

university:

University of Amsterdam

funding_signals:

€2.5 million ERC Advanced Grant in 2024 for Deep Culture, fully funded PhD positions advertised.

likelihood_score: 93

existing_initiative:

Critical Data & AI Research Group, Critical AI Seminar Series

university:

University at Buffalo

funding_signals:

Launched Fall 2025 with $5 million from New York State, department-chair professorship advertised in 2025-26.

likelihood_score: 93

existing_initiative:

Department of AI and Society

university:

University of California, Los Angeles

funding_signals:

$300,000 California Education Learning Lab grant (June 2026), Bedari Kindness Institute fellowship funding 2025-26 ethnography of Effective Altruism, $2.9m Minderoo Initiative.

likelihood_score: 92

existing_initiative:

DataX, Center on Resilience & Digital Justice, Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, Bedari Kindness Institute

university:

Stanford University

funding_signals:

$60 million in cumulative HAI grant funding, $2.37 million seed round (2025) including an ethnography on the religious experience of AI and Silicon Valley technoculture.

likelihood_score: 92

existing_initiative:

Stanford HAI, Stanford Data Science

university:

University at Albany, SUNY

funding_signals:

$2.4 million, three-year SUNY investment (April 2025) funding fellowships and 7-credit microcredentials.

likelihood_score: 92

existing_initiative:

AI & Society College and AI & Society Research Center

university:

University of Exeter

funding_signals:

Launched Oct 2025, £171,000 UKRI-AHRC BRAID grant for Curating the Commons, Favel IA project funded by INCT DSI.

likelihood_score: 91

existing_initiative:

Critical AI Centre (CrAIC)

university:

North Carolina State University

funding_signals:

$500,000 NEH award (August 2024) neh.gov to launch center, planned graduate minor and postdoc mentoring program.

likelihood_score: 90

existing_initiative:

Embedding AI in Society Ethically (EASE) Center

university:

Lake Forest College

funding_signals:

$1.207 million Mellon Foundation award (Nov 2023 / Jan 2024) lakeforest.edu, launch of interdisciplinary AI minor.

likelihood_score: 90

existing_initiative:

Krebs Center for the Humanities / HUMAN (Humanities Understanding of the Machine-Assisted Nexus)

university:

University of California, Davis

funding_signals:

$499,717 NEH center award (August 2024) neh.gov.

likelihood_score: 90

existing_initiative:

Center for Artificial Intelligence and Experimental Futures (CAIEF)

university:

University of California, Santa Barbara

funding_signals:

Seed support from UC Humanities Research Institute and VW Foundation, hosting Critical AI Studies conference (Oct 2026).

likelihood_score: 89

existing_initiative:

Center for the Humanities and Machine Learning (HUML)

university:

University of Cambridge

funding_signals:

21-month MSt in AI Ethics and Society (2026-28 cohort), CSER program on Historical Dimensions of AI, Power & Catastrophic Risk (2026).

likelihood_score: 88

existing_initiative:

Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI), CSER

university:

University of Wisconsin–Madison

funding_signals:

$499,563 NEH grant plus $220,000 match (launched Jan 2026) neh.gov, supporting internal and external faculty fellowships.

likelihood_score: 88

existing_initiative:

Center for Humanistic Inquiry into AI and Uncertainty

university:

University of Richmond

funding_signals:

$491,863 NEH grant plus $226,602 matching funds (launched Fall 2025) neh.gov.

likelihood_score: 87

existing_initiative:

Center for Liberal Arts and AI (CLAAI)

university:

University of Cincinnati

funding_signals:

$498,430 NEH grant (2025) neh.gov, ~$165,000 seed funding, postdoc fellowship in AI ethics beginning Aug 2026.

likelihood_score: 87

existing_initiative:

Center for Explainable, Ethical, and Trustworthy AI

university:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

funding_signals:

Awarded 30 faculty seed grants over 3 years, 40 postdocs supported since 2022, recent seed round awarded 8 projects up to $75,000 each.

likelihood_score: 87

existing_initiative:

Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC)

university:

University of Oklahoma

funding_signals:

$498,129 NEH grant (September 2024 through June 2028) neh.gov, organizing 20 researchers and major fall conferences (2025-2027).

likelihood_score: 86

existing_initiative:

Center for Creativity and Authenticity in AI Cultural Production

university:

CUNY Graduate Center

funding_signals:

$1 million Google.org grant (Dec 2024), recruiting faculty and doctoral-instructor cohorts for Spring 2025 through Spring 2027.

likelihood_score: 86

existing_initiative:

Critical AI Literacy Institute

university:

Oberlin College

funding_signals:

Official launch of explicitly titled minor for Fall 2026, campus-wide 'Year of AI Exploration'.

likelihood_score: 85

existing_initiative:

Critical AI Studies minor

university:

Georgetown University

funding_signals:

$500,000 NEH grant plus $250k match neh.gov, $30 million Knight Foundation joint commitment (May 2023) socialsciencespace.com.

likelihood_score: 85

existing_initiative:

Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Citizenship, Knight-Georgetown Institute

university:

Loyola Marymount University

funding_signals:

$431,000 Mellon Foundation grant (March 2025) 2 sources funding 9 faculty fellowships and community courses.

likelihood_score: 84

existing_initiative:

Habitable Worlds: A Disability, Ethics, and AI Think Tank

university:

New York University

funding_signals:

2-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 'Critical AI Studies' starting Fall 2025 at NYU Shanghai, Global Opportunity Grant.

likelihood_score: 82

existing_initiative:

Digital Theory Lab, Center for Responsible AI, NYU Shanghai Critical AI Studies Fellowship

university:

University of Southern California

funding_signals:

$4 million Knight Foundation grant over 5 years (Nov 2025) marshall.usc.edu, Innovation Scholars program.

likelihood_score: 81

existing_initiative:

Ahmanson Lab (Critical AI Studies Reading Group), Neely Center for Ethical Leadership

university:

Princeton University

funding_signals:

NSF support (Grant No. 2127309) for AI safety ethnography firstmonday.org, Schmidt Sciences humanities-AI awards ($500k and $450k), fully funded fellows program.

likelihood_score: 80

existing_initiative:

Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), Princeton Humanities Initiative, Modeling Culture

university:

University of Notre Dame

funding_signals:

$500,000 NEH grant (Round 2, Aug 2025) neh.gov.

likelihood_score: 80

existing_initiative:

Notre Dame Program on AI and the Development of Ethics in Agents

university:

Baylor College of Medicine

funding_signals:

$499,495 NEH grant plus $249,642 match (Round 2, Aug 2025) neh.gov.

likelihood_score: 80

existing_initiative:

Center for Humanities-based Health AI Innovation (with Rice University)

university:

Binghamton University

funding_signals:

Announced April 2025 as part of New York State's $5 million program across SUNY campuses.

likelihood_score: 79

existing_initiative:

Institute for AI and Society

university:

University of California, Santa Cruz

funding_signals:

Launched as a 2025-26 initiative explicitly addressing Critical AI Studies; hosted Shazeda Ahmed presenting EA/AI safety research (May 2025).

likelihood_score: 78

existing_initiative:

± AI Initiative (Humanities Institute), Science & Justice Research Center

university:

Duke University

funding_signals:

$30 million Duke Endowment award supporting AI and computing faculty hiring, active cluster hiring proposal (Feb 2026).

likelihood_score: 78

existing_initiative:

Society-Centered AI, proposed Initiative on AI and Human Flourishing

university:

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

funding_signals:

New 18-credit minor curriculum announced August 2026 for Fall 2026 launch.

likelihood_score: 77

existing_initiative:

Critical AI Studies minor

university:

Emory University

funding_signals:

NSF-funded (Grant No. 2127309) foundational ethnographic study of the AI safety/effective altruism field firstmonday.org.

likelihood_score: 75

existing_initiative:

Department of Sociology

university:

University of Kansas

funding_signals:

$218,732 NEH grant for advanced topics in the digital humanities (June 2025 institute) neh.gov.

likelihood_score: 74

existing_initiative:

AI & Digital Literacy Institute

university:

University of California, Berkeley

funding_signals:

Faculty seed grants, co-investigator on $7.5m multidisciplinary AI/misinformation project, NSF funding involvement in EA/AI-safety ethnography firstmonday.org.

likelihood_score: 73

existing_initiative:

Berkeley Center for New Media, School of Information

university:

University of Arizona

funding_signals:

Approved August 2025 for Fall 2026 implementation.

likelihood_score: 73

existing_initiative:

AI and Society minor

university:

Radboud University

funding_signals:

2025 symposium and a five-day 2026 professional summer course on Critical AI Literacies.

likelihood_score: 72

existing_initiative:

Critical AI Literacy research project

university:

University of Connecticut

funding_signals:

Institutional partner in the $250,000 Mellon-funded Design Justice AI Global Humanities Institute (July 2024) 2 sources.

likelihood_score: 70

existing_initiative:

Humanities Institute

university:

University of Memphis

funding_signals:

Established interdisciplinary five-faculty core actively recruiting affiliates.

likelihood_score: 68

existing_initiative:

Critical AI Studies Research Cluster