Common questions about the Human-Centered AI Lab, our research, and our initiatives.
What is the Human-Centered AI Lab?
The Human-Centered AI Lab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization founded by Katherine Elkins and Jon Chun. The founders co-created the world's first human-centered AI curriculum in 2016 and organized the Human-Centered AI Lab in 2023; it was incorporated as Human-Centered AI Lab, Inc., an Ohio nonprofit, in March 2026 and recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity in June 2026. It conducts AI research at the intersection of safety, governance, and the humanities and social sciences. Its co-founders serve as Principal Investigators representing the Modern Language Association in the consortium of NIST's Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI); Elkins is Principal Investigator and Chun Co-PI of the Schmidt Sciences HAVI Archival Intelligence project.
Is the Human-Centered AI Lab a 501(c)(3)?
Yes. Human-Centered AI Lab, Inc. is an IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity incorporated in Ohio. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. EIN: 41-4616677.
What is human-centered AI?
Human-centered AI is an approach to artificial intelligence research and design that prioritizes human values, needs, and oversight. It integrates perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, and ethics alongside technical AI development. The Human-Centered AI Lab was founded on the principle that AI safety and governance require deep humanistic expertise — not just technical solutions. Elkins and Chun's curriculum, established in 2016, was the first to embed computational AI methods within a liberal arts framework of ethics, governance, and humanistic inquiry.
What is SentimentArcs?
SentimentArcs is an open-source toolkit created by Jon Chun that implements ensemble methods for diachronic sentiment analysis in full-length literary narratives and film. The underlying methodology — using large ensembles of models to surface emotional arcs in long-form texts — was developed with Katherine Elkins and published in her book The Shapes of Stories: Sentiment Analysis for Narrative (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Student and faculty research using SentimentArcs and related computational tools has been downloaded 100,000+ times from more than 4,000 institutions across 198 countries.
What is NIST CAISI?
The Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) is the NIST center responsible for AI evaluation and standards; it was renamed from the U.S. AI Safety Institute in 2025. Katherine Elkins and Jon Chun serve as Principal Investigators representing the Modern Language Association — the largest scholarly organization in language and literature — in the CAISI consortium. Their work focuses on LLM evaluation, specifically how large language models process negation, prohibition, and persuasion, contributing to safety frameworks for autonomous AI systems.
What is the Schmidt Sciences HAVI program?
The Schmidt Sciences Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI) funds interdisciplinary research at the intersection of the humanities and artificial intelligence. The Archival Intelligence project, led by the Lab's co-founders, was selected as one of 23 teams worldwide for the program. The project uses AI to rescue endangered cultural heritage archives in New Orleans, implementing community-governed data sovereignty frameworks for historically marginalized populations.
What is the Archival Intelligence project?
Archival Intelligence is a research project led by the Lab's co-founders through the Schmidt Sciences HAVI program. It uses AI to rescue endangered cultural heritage archives in New Orleans, with a focus on community-governed data sovereignty for historically marginalized populations. The interdisciplinary team was one of 23 selected worldwide. The project is hosted at archivalintelligenceai.org.
Who founded the Human-Centered AI Lab?
The Human-Centered AI Lab was founded by Katherine Elkins and Jon Chun. Elkins is an AI safety researcher and author of The Shapes of Stories (Cambridge UP, 2022) and Proust's In Search of Lost Time: Philosophical Perspectives (OUP, 2022). Chun is an AI research scientist who created SentimentArcs and co-founded SafeWeb ($26M acquisition by Symantec). Both hold degrees from UC Berkeley and serve as Principal Investigators representing the Modern Language Association in the NIST CAISI consortium; on Schmidt Sciences HAVI, Elkins is Principal Investigator and Chun Co-PI.