Partnerships

Data Sciences arose in the late 2000s as a new discipline and infrastructure within the University. Spearheaded by federal and philanthropic funding, field research from the start focused primarily on the development and application of Large Language Models (LLMs), leading to Generative AI—which today not only permeates all facets of daily life but challenges the pedagogical mission of the University as well.

While the harmful impact of AI on teaching and learning has become a primary concern, a broader structural perspective brings to relief other disciplinary formations that, prior to the turn to LLMs, had been similarly shaped by large-scale outside funding. Post WWII government, industry, and foundation grants promoting philology, language learning, and regional expertise gave rise to Area Studies Programs and to the training of generations of students in the languages and cultures of the so-called “Third World.” Recent withdrawal of support for Area Studies (including the freezing of Title VI funds and the dismantling of the Department of Education) has meant that the model of expertise it championed has been thoroughly supplanted by LLMs and GenAI models developed by the Data Sciences.

The Critical Data Studies Initiative takes a genealogical approach to the study of GenAI and LLMs. We aim to bring humanities thinking and area studies expertise to bear in considering the socioeconomic, military, and industrial interests that have shaped Data Sciences/Studies as a discipline, yielding a fuller, more integrated understanding of AI and its potential to advance the University's obligation not only to produce knowledge but to promote the public good.