Penn’s third annual AI Month spotlights the evolving frontier of human-centered AI
A monthlong series of talks, workshops, symposia, and more highlights how recent advances in artificial intelligence are reshaping robotics, health, education, and public life, all the while keeping human values at the center.
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In recent years—seemingly overnight—artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool capable of accelerating discovery across research institutes.
Now in its third year, AI Month at Penn returns this April with a sharpened focus on human-centered AI, convening researchers and practitioners to explore how rapidly evolving tools can expand knowledge while safeguarding human judgment. From 60-second lectures to a hack-AI-thon and from workshops to symposia, the month’s events map the terrain where algorithms meet values and where new ideas move from possibility to practice.
From Crowned Snake to Chnoubis: Learning AI Image Enhancement| April 9, noon, Penn Museum, 3260 South St.—Participants will explore how AI-powered image enhancement reveals details in museum objects, such as inscriptions, textures, and underdrawings, supporting conservation and scholarship. The workshop introduces how machine learning tools can improve visibility while preserving the integrity of original materials. The event is open to Penn students only; seating is limited.
Designing Better Learners: What AI Reveals About the Learning Brain | April 16, 11 a.m.—This virtual, hands-on session offered via Zoom introduces approaches for structuring ideas and building a “second brain” to support research, coursework, and creative projects. Participants explore how AI tools can help clarify thinking, generate questions, and support continuous learning.
Textpocalypse Now: AI and the New Political Economy of Writing|April 17, 4 p.m.,Fisher Bennett Hall, Room 135,3340 Walnut St.—This talk will consider the status of writing in the present moment, not from the qualitative question of whether AI can write better than humans, but from the stance of political economy—meaning the role of writing in the “scriptural economy,” as well as online industries’ insatiable demand for “content” and the increasing awareness (sometimes called the “Dead Internet”) that more and more of what people read online is merely eavesdropping on conversations among machines.
AI-Informed Activities and Assignments to Support Student Learning| April 21, 3:30 to 5 p.m., Energy Forum, 4th Floor, Fisher Fine Arts Library—In an interdisciplinary introductory panel, speakers will describe how they use AI to support student learning through in-class activities or out-of-class assignments. Following the panel, speakers will be available to discuss their use cases in more detail and answer questions at stations during an informal reception. Panelists include Faizan Alawi, Elizabeth Emery, Seiji Isotani, Bhuv Jain, James Petersson, and Sarah Pierce.
IDEAS on Generative AI Symposium| April 30, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Amy Gutmann Hall—This forward-looking event exploring the next wave of generative and multimodal artificial intelligence. As generative models rapidly evolve from text and image synthesis toward integrated systems that can reason, perceive, and act, this symposium will bring together leading researchers across natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, and machine learning to discuss the scientific foundations and future directions of the field.
When the Schuylkill swallowed the city: Lessons from Hurricane Ida’s historic flood
New Penn research shows that Hurricane Ida wasn’t a once-in-a-century anomaly but a preview of how climate change, urbanization, and aging infrastructure are rewriting flood risk.
The Fed explained: What it does and why it matters
Former Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker and financial historian Peter Conti-Brown, both Wharton professors, unpack the central bank’s origins, its unusual structure, and the quiet ways it shapes the economy
How population changes are impacting primary education worldwide
Research from Penn sociologist Emily Hannum and colleagues reveals regional trends in whether school-age populations are increasing, plateauing, or decreasing—and shows how different countries are responding.
A bioengineered bean gum from the lab of Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell is found to reduce the levels of three microbes associated with head and neck squamous cell cancer to almost zero, without affecting the beneficial bacteria normally found in the mouth.
Fighting oral cancer with bioengineered chewing gum
Research led by Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell shows that antiviral and antibacterial chewing gums reduce the levels of three microbes linked to worse outcomes in oral cancers, paving the way for more effective and affordable therapies.
