Center for Artificial Intelligence, Society, and the Environment (AISE)
Research
The Center for Artificial Intelligence, Society and Environment (AISE) critically examines the complex socio-technical relationships between AI systems and our ecological worlds. We investigate how AI is a tool that both shapes and is shaped by environmental governance, resource extraction, and sustainability practices.
Our research mission interrogates how computational power reconfigures nature-society relations, exposing the uneven distribution of benefits and burdens across diverse communities and landscapes. While we analyze the human dimensions, material infrastructures, knowledge regimes, and socio-technical assemblages that constitute AI systems, we also explore how AI is being deployed as a novel lens for understanding ecological patterns, monitoring biodiversity, and modeling complex environmental systems. Through participatory methodologies and transdisciplinary collaboration, we aim to advance more equitable and sustainable pathways for environmental decision-making in an increasingly automated world. Our center supports graduate and faculty research and facilitates community conversations and workshops to develop key questions around Artificial Intelligence, Society, and Environment.
Fellowship Projects
Faculty
- Giorgos Mountrakis
Expanded Use of Deep Learning Models on Landsat Observations - Jiajue Chai
Integrating Methane Isotopic Analysis to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence - Jenny Frank
AI-Driven Comparative Analysis of Public Sentiment on Renewable vs. Fossil Fuel Consumption Using BlueSky - Julia Maresca
Automating Gene Discovery for Environmental Cleanup - Aidan Ackerman
Exploring the Current State and Future Potential of AI in Landscape Architecture and the Environment - Nazanin Ghaffari
AI-Driven Participatory Planning: Decentralizing Engagement for Inclusive and Equitable Environmental Outcomes - Jean Yang
Iterative AI-Driven Redesign of the Historical Stanton House - Shayan Mirzabeigi
AI-Driven Deep Learning for Sustainable Residential Construction - Sharon Moran
Artificial Intelligence for Avian Intrigue? Understanding Birds Through a New Lens - Joshua Cousins
Artificial Intelligence and the Metabolic Geographies of Resource Extraction: Mapping Socio-Technical Transformations in the Mining Sector - Chie Togami
Research Protocols for Archival Analysis: Exploring AI’s Potential for Interrogating the Environmental History of Air Pollution in Southwestern, PA - Patrice Kohl
AI as a Tool for Space Sustainability - Kurt Stavenhagen & Jess Fenn
The Use of AI as a Tool of Ideation in Undergraduate Students’ Research Writing
Graduate Students
- Meredith Barges
The Social Dimensions of AI-Powered Binoculars in Birdwatching: Implications for Experience, Expertise, and Human-Avian Relations - Emme Christie
Toward a Research Agenda for AI in Higher Education Settings - Sarah Akbarnejad Nesheli
Enhancing Community-Based Water Quality Monitoring: Artificial Intelligence Solutions for Improved HABs Detection - Taposh Mollick
Investigating the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Species Identification and the Potential Biases in Citizen Science Data - Stacey Mack
The Use of AI in Water Quality Monitoring: Exploring its Pitfalls and Potential
Key Questions
- Does using AI place inordinate burdens on energy systems and water supplies in other locations, and how should universities address this?
- Is AI causing us to fetishize the digital sphere and 'data'?
- What happens when people’s first nature experiences take place through screens and phones, and mediated by AI?
Image credits: photos by S. Moran; illustration from a 19th century book depicting an ‘automaton’ known as ‘the mechanical turk.’