<p>Stanford University is merging its two flagship AI and data science organizations into a single institute, to be led by computer scientist James Landay. [<strong>Photo above</strong>: James Landay by Andrew Brodhead]</p>
<p>The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and the Stanford Data Science initiative will combine under the Stanford HAI name, with Landay continuing as Denning Director. University leaders believe the human-centered focus is critical to the future of technology. It is reflected in the broad sweep of faculty involved – from engineering to medicine to the humanities and more.</p>
<p>Former Stanford president John Hennessy and HAI founding director Fei-Fei Li will serve as co-chairs of the institute’s advisory council. Li will also take on a new university-wide role as Special Advisor on AI to President Jonathan Levin. Hennessy is Chairman of the Board of Alphabet Inc.</p>
<p>The merger combines HAI’s network of more than 400 scholars, extensive industry affiliates program, and $60 million in cumulative grant funding with Stanford Data Science’s high-performance Marlowe computing cluster and early scholar fellowship program. Levin describes the new Stanford HAI as “the front door for AI at Stanford.”</p>
<p>Much of that capacity has been built through donor investment – endowed professorships, the Data Science Scholars program and the HAI Graduate Fellowship program that train early-career researchers, and seed and scale-up research grants funding projects across the university.</p>
<p>“The merged organization creates a community of scholars whose research touches powerfully on every aspect of AI, its applications, and implications,” Levin said, “and the human-centered focus provides a north star for the institute.”</p>
<p>Landay has spent three decades working in what’s now called human-centered computing. His 1990s design software SILK foreshadowed tools like Figma and Canva; his UbiFit project in the early 2000s anticipated the Fitbit and Apple Watch. In 2024, he received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award.</p>
<p>“This technology is changing everything,” said Landay, who is also the Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan Professor in the School of Engineering. “To have real impact in this moment, we need to adapt. This is about shaping how AI affects people, communities, and society – with that human-centered perspective at the core of everything we do.”</p>

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