On November 7, 2025, UC Berkeley’s Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society, in collaboration with Schmidt Sciences, hosted a convening on Human Futures in the Age of AI. Co-organized by Hale Sirin and Nina Begus, the event brought together leading researchers from AI, neuroscience, psychology, the humanities, and the arts to address a growing challenge: As AI systems increasingly take on cognitive and cultural labor, how do we ensure that human values, creativity, and judgment remain central to large-scale societal systems?
The workshop focused on three interconnected themes through plenary discussions, lightning talks, and facilitated breakout groups: 1) human–AI co-learning and hybrid intelligence, 2) sociotechnical alignment, and 3) scaling collaboration. By building on earlier interdisciplinary efforts and responding to the rapid evolution of AI in recent years, the convening aimed to identify key research gaps, evaluation challenges, and future directions for studying AI’s impact on human cognition, culture, and collective decision-making. Outcomes include a forthcoming white paper and an internal report to inform future research agendas at the intersection of humanities and AI.
