Schmidt Sciences

Rewriting History with AI and the Humanities A remarkable breakthrough in reading the Herculaneum scrolls — ancient texts buried and carbonized by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD — is revealing just how powerful the intersection of technology and the humanities can be. Brent Seales, whose pioneering work in digital restoration laid the foundation for this progress, showcases the transformative potential of humanities research. Now leading the Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI) at Schmidt Sciences, Brent brings together machine learning and historical research to recover voices lost for nearly two millennia. Through efforts like the #VesuviusChallenge and the support of a global research community, this work is proving that AI isn’t just about the future, it’s also a tool for rediscovering our past. Read more about the HAVI program and check out the full Nature article in the comments. ⬇️ 📷 University of Kentucky

Dairy byproducts and food waste are packed with water and potential. WAVES, part of Schmidt Sciences' Virtual Institute on Feedstocks of the Future (VIFF), is developing new technologies to separate water from solids, turning waste into clean water, food, energy, and feed. Owen McDougal, director of the Food and Dairy Innovation Center at Boise State University, shares how WAVES is helping industries cut costs, reduce waste, and unlock hidden value in byproducts, all while supporting sustainable practices and local communities. Learn more about VIFF: https://lnkd.in/e9a3jzyC

Should we bring people back to life... digitally? Advancements in AI now allow companies to create lifelike simulations of the deceased, using data from texts, emails, and social media. This growing “digital afterlife industry” promises a form of immortality –– but at what cost? AI2050 Early Career Fellow Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, PhD studies the ethics of digital resurrection, exploring how different cultures perceive AI-driven immortality. Her AI2050 project challenges the Western, commercialized approach to grief and memory, asking: Should we all want to live forever online? Learn more about her work in our latest AI2050 Community Perspectives: https://lnkd.in/ewt2tpU3

We are excited to announce our 2025 Schmidt Science Fellows! https://lnkd.in/e6YY-u5t Thirty-two early career researchers, nominated by the world’s leading research universities, will take an interdisciplinary approach to tackling the most pressing challenges of the 21st Century. “By providing Schmidt Science Fellows with support, community, and freedom to work across disciplines and gain new insights, we hope they'll tackle some of the world's most vexing challenges, achieve breakthroughs, and help create a healthier, more resilient world for all,” said Wendy Schmidt, who co-founded Schmidt Science Fellows with her husband, Eric. Each year, our new cohort marks an important milestone as we welcome accomplished researchers, each individual enriching our community. “Our Fellows represent the next generation of visionary research leaders,” said Dr. Megan Kenna, Executive Director of Schmidt Science Fellows. “Through their work, they will break down barriers, drive interdisciplinary breakthroughs, and push the frontiers of human knowledge." Schmidt Science Fellows is a program of Schmidt Sciences delivered in partnership with the Rhodes Trust. Our 2025 Fellows represent 15 nationalities, including researchers from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates for the first time. The 2025 Fellows represent 27 nominating universities, including, for the first time, McGill University in Canada, RWTH Aachen University in Germany, Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, University of California, Los Angeles in the US, and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Our 2025 Schmidt Science Fellows have also expanded our global reach and impact.  They have: 📢 Grown our Fellowship community to 209 📢 Taken the number of nationalities represented to 39 📢 Increased the number of successful global Nominating Partners to 67,   representing institutions across Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Oceania. The funding and our bespoke Science Leadership Program equips scientists to be the next generation of research leaders and apply their knowledge to a new field of study with the goal of accelerating discoveries. Congratulations to our successful Nominating Partners: University of Oxford RWTH Aachen University UC San Diego Northwestern University Stanford University The Johns Hopkins University Imperial College London University of Wisconsin-Madison The Francis Crick Institute Massachusetts Institute of Technology McGill University Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPI-MG) Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems UCL University of California, Berkeley Dartmouth College TECNOLÓGICO DE MONTERREY University of Groningen Wellcome Trust University of Cambridge University of Pennsylvania The Rockefeller University Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Princeton University Yale University Purdue University UCLA Cornell University

How can a machine learn to see what the human eye might miss in a 19th-century masterpiece? What secrets lie hidden in the brushstrokes of a Romantic genius, waiting centuries to be revealed? Digital Delacroix—our inaugural project at the Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI)—is answering these questions through an unprecedented collaboration with Professor Barthélémy Jobert and Sorbonne Université. Together, we're digitizing Delacroix's extensive correspondence, personal journals, and the magnificent murals adorning the French Parliament—artistic treasures rarely accessible to the public. This groundbreaking initiative demonstrates how AI can revolutionize humanities research. We're developing sophisticated computer vision systems trained to distinguish Delacroix's distinctive brushstrokes from those of his studio assistants, helping solve attribution questions that have challenged art historians for generations. Our Humanities and AI Virtual Institute unites two worlds that rarely intersect—the deep interpretive expertise of arts scholars and the powerful analytical capabilities of artificial intelligence. This collaboration creates a new kind of discovery ecosystem where technology reveals patterns across thousands of artworks and documents, while humanities experts provide the cultural context and nuanced understanding that algorithms alone cannot achieve. Digital Delacroix exemplifies this vision—not just by making magnificent artwork digitally accessible, but by revealing the creative process behind Delacroix's masterpieces, showing which brushstrokes came from the master himself and which from his assistants, illuminating artistic decisions hidden for centuries. Read The New York Times feature, link in comments. #AI #STEAM #AIinhumanities #AIinArt #Delacroix

“Most people, when they think of how a philosopher is going to help scientists, it’s about how it's going to make the concept sharper. I think that's missing the full breadth of ways that philosophers can help scientists to do the work that they already want to do to an even deeper degree." https://lnkd.in/ep9F9SmJ 2022 Schmidt Science Fellow Ethan Perets, based at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is passionate about forging closer links between philosophy and science. And his vision is to see philosophers embedded in every lab. He's now written a new book chapter exploring how philosophy is an under-appreciated lens for tackling a whole range of scientific challenges.

“We study humanities for much the same reason we study science: to gain knowledge of our world and our role within it.” —Wendy Schmidt The Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI), a new program from Schmidt Sciences, is supporting bold, interdisciplinary research that brings together AI experts and humanities scholars to explore human history, culture, and creativity. We’re now inviting Expressions of Interest for future projects. If you're working at the intersection of AI and the humanities, with a focus on heterogeneity, multilingual and multimodal understanding, or dataset creation, you can learn more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/gBb_m3h7 🗓️ Deadline: April 4, 2025

Science is strongest when it’s shared. This week, our Director of Communications, Carlie Wiener, is leading science storytelling workshops for the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Data Science & Environment Center at University of California, Berkeley and the Wendy Schmidt Environmental Fellows at UC Santa Barbara. With over 160 students participating, these workshops help researchers sharpen their communication skills, ensuring their discoveries reach the audiences who need them most. What communication tip do you wish you learned early in your career?

Turning uncertainty into insight. Scientists are using innovative techniques to extract clear climate signals from "cloudy" data, helping us better understand our changing world. AI is a crucial tool for recognizing patterns and finding meaning within vast volumes of data, making sense of complex climate dynamics. Check out how Schmidt Science Fellows are tackling this challenge.

How does inference-time compute impact AI safety? The AI Safety Science program at Schmidt Sciences has launched an RFP for research on the safety implications of inference-time compute. Apply for up to $500K for research that tackles the most critical technical AI safety challenges in this emerging paradigm in 12-18 months. We’re looking for bold ideas that can lead to concrete progress—whether through novel evaluations, mitigation strategies, or new safety tools. EOIs due April 30, 2025. Learn more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/eYVuPMVi