AI Perspectives Week (Fall 2026)

Thursday, September 17, 2026, 1-2 p.m.
Location: DUC 276

Center for the Environment: This event will highlight the work of WashU faculty who are utilizing innovative AI methodologies to ask new questions and forge new advances in environmental research. Featuring a series of short research talks and a moderated roundtable featuring WashU experts, the discussion will focus on the promises and challenges of incorporating AI into environmental research, and the new innovations and advances that AI is enabling.

Thursday, September 17, 2026, 4-5 p.m.
Umrath Lounge

Digital Intelligence & Innovation (DI2) Accelerator will be hosting the DTRC Showcase. Learn more about the work of faculty and students who participated in the 2026 DTRC, a 10-week summer program pairing faculty with student developers to accelerate discovery through AI and emerging digital technologies.

Thursday, September 17, 2026, 5-6:15 p.m.
DUC 234

Civil Society Initiative: The emergence of powerful AI models has given new life to debates about what kinds of mentality—such as intelligence, agency, or consciousness—artificial systems can have. One question with salient ethical implications is that of whether AI systems can feel pain. Answering this question requires us to delve both into technological possibilities for AI as well as the nature and ethical significance of pain. What is it to be in pain, such that a machine could or could not be in such a state? What is it about pain that makes it different from other feelings? Would it be a big deal if AI systems could feel pain? Please join us for a discussion with Meaghan Creed (Anesthesiology) and Casey O’Callaghan (Philosophy and Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology). A light dinner will be served.

The Civil Society Initiative’s Dinner & Dialogue series presents debates on timely ethical and political questions that model reasoning about value questions and the positive side of disagreement.

This event is sponsored by the Frick Initiatives at the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

Friday, September 18, 2026, 9 a.m.-12:45 p.m. (Breakfast and Lunch included!)
Location: Clark-Fox Forum, Hillman Hall

Arts & Sciences welcomes faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students from across all schools and disciplines to attend this half-day session. In the spirit of the A&S principles on Artificial Intelligence and Undergraduate Student Learning, this symposium considers how we can prioritize, support, and enhance student learning in the age of AI. As artificial intelligence technologies evolve, they present us with fundamental questions about whether, how, and to what extent these tools can or ought to be used in educational settings. When AI is employed thoughtfully by students and instructors it facilitates rather than bypasses the learning process. 

The keynote lecture will be provided by Jeff Greene, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and McMichael Professor at the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a leading expert on self-regulated learning, epistemic cognition, and digital literacy. In addition, A&S faculty will share how they are responding to and integrating AI in the classroom and a panel of A&S undergraduate and graduate students will discuss AI and learning.

Friday, September 18, 2026, 12-1 p.m.
Location: Kuehner Courtyard

Join Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts faculty to see how AI is shaping their work and creative practice. They will share how AI tools are used in creative practice—as a tool, collaborator, and focus of critique. They will also share how the emerging AI infrastructure is shaping creative activities and discourse.

September 22, 2026, 9-10:30 a.m.
DUC 239

Interested in building a custom chatbot but not sure where to start? Join the Center for Teaching and Learning for this hands-on workshop where you will learn to design, build, and deploy your own custom AI chatbot! Beyond course assistants, they’ll discuss how to create role-play conversation partners, scenario simulators, and tutoring agents. Participants should bring a laptop with access to the internet. Though the focus will be on creating Google Gemini for Education’s custom chatbots, Gems, the scaffolding presented will be applicable to any chatbot creator interface.

Tuesday, September 22, 2026, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall

This event, created by McKelvey School of Engineering, will feature presentations of recent foundational advances in AI by WashU faculty in areas including large language models, computer vision, trustworthy AI, medical imaging, AI for science, AI interpretability, and many others. These will be followed by two tutorials. The first will focus on developing AI agents. The second will introduce the AgentNet, an Internet of Agents architecture that enables users to request AI agents and agent teams to complete a variety of tasks including image classification, text summarization, manuscript reviewing, and others, while also lowering the barriers for tool and agent developers to make these available for broad use.

Tuesday, September 22, 2026, 12-1 p.m.
Location: TBD

Tuesday, September 22, 2026, 12-1 p.m.
Location: DUC 248

Curious about how AI can help you reach general audiences? Join the Office of Public Scholarship for AI Tips and Tactics for Public Scholarship, a hands-on workshop. We’ll cover practical advice for working with AI—as well as its ethical implications and pitfalls. We’ll focus on areas where AI can be most useful to engaging general audiences with your research or creative work: writing, editing, pitching, and disseminating your work for broader audiences. You’ll leave with concrete workflows and prompts ready to put to use in your own projects. We’re offering two identical sessions—Tuesday, September 22 and Wednesday, September 23—each limited to 12 participants, with lunch provided. Space is limited; register to reserve your seat.

September 22, 2026, 3-5 p.m.
Olin Library, Room 142

Last spring a panel of WashU experts came together to discuss the ethical concerns of the rapid expansion of generative AI. Join WashU Libraries again this fall for a new slate of WashU experts who will detail their experiences and thoughts about a wide range of concern for humans, communities, resource use, teaching approaches, research governance, and technological advancement.

Tuesday, September 22, 2026, 5:30-6:45 p.m.
Graham Chapel

The Future of Healthcare: Bridging AI Research and Human-Centered Solutions 

A fireside chat, facilitated by Philip Payne, Chief Health AI Officer.

Eric Horvitz, MD, PhD, is Chief Scientific Officer at Microsoft where he leads initiatives at the intersection of science, technology, and society, with emphases on artificial intelligence, biosciences, and healthcare. His research contributions have advanced AI through innovations in perception, reasoning, and decision-making under uncertainty. Learn more

Sponsored by the Institute for Informatics, Data Science, and Biostatistics, Digital Intelligence & Innovation (DI2) Accelerator, and the Office of the Provost. Celebrating a “Decade of Data” at the Institute for Informatics, Data Science, and Biostatistics (I2DB).

Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 10-11 a.m.
Erlanger Interactive Classroom, McDonnell Sciences Building, Floor 1 (near the Shell cafeteria), Medical Campus and Virtual

Bernard Becker Medical Library: AI tools are everywhere right now, and you may find yourself wondering which ones are relevant to your work. This hands-on hybrid workshop offers a practical look at the landscape of general and clinical AI tools, and AI-assisted literature search platforms. Gain confidence in your utilization and selection of AI tools!

We will be using the AI tools OpenEvidence, Consensus, and Gemini, along with the database PubMed. Please bring a laptop or a mobile device if you would like to participate in the interactive workshop elements.

Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 12-1 p.m.
Location: DUC 248

Curious about how AI can help you reach general audiences? Join the Office of Public Scholarship for AI Tips and Tactics for Public Scholarship, a hands-on workshop. We’ll cover practical advice for working with AI—as well as its ethical implications and pitfalls. We’ll focus on areas where AI can be most useful to engaging general audiences with your research or creative work: writing, editing, pitching, and disseminating your work for broader audiences. You’ll leave with concrete workflows and prompts ready to put to use in your own projects. We’re offering two identical sessions—Tuesday, September 22 and Wednesday, September 23—each limited to 12 participants, with lunch provided. Space is limited; register to reserve your seat.

Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 12-12:50 p.m.
Location: Olin Library Instruction Room 1 and Zoom

WashU Libraries: While navigating the complexities of academic research, ensuring the accuracy and credibility of AI-generated data is quickly emerging as an essential research skill. This session will demonstrate practical strategies for cross-referencing AI content with reputable sources, highlight the importance of human oversight, and provide tips for developing critical evaluation skills. Leave equipped with the tools to assess and use AI-generated information in your scholarly work.

Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 1-5 p.m. (reception to follow)
Location TBD

AIHealth Venture Day will be a dynamic, cross-campus event co-organized by the AI for Health Institute, the Office of Technology Management/Tech Transfer (OTM), Olin Business of Health, Institute for Informatics, Data Science & Biostatistics (I2DB), and the Skandalaris Center. The goal is to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship at the intersection of AI and health across the university. The event builds on global momentum in AI for health startups and investment while advancing WashU’s AI and entrepreneurial initiatives. It will bring together investors, faculty, students and alumni for an afternoon of showcasing high-potential innovations, along with networking and partnership-building opportunities. The program will include curated discussions, innovation showcases, lightning talks and informal networking designed to foster meaningful exchange among investors, clinicians, researchers, entrepreneurs and students working in AI and health.

Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 5-6 p.m.
Location TBD

Join the Center for Career Engagement with Rebecca Burack, senior partner and head of the Global Private Equity Practice at Bain & Company, for a conversation discussing how GenAI is changing the business, and private equity, landscape, how business leaders are embracing AI and the lessons we can learn from them, and some things to consider as you embrace the technology.

Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 5:30-7 p.m.
Stix House

The Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement and The Cordell Institute: This special AI Perspectives Week edition of Civic Café will grapple with the big questions of AI governance. The emergence of AI on the public sphere has drastically changed how people work and use technology. Governments on all levels are now facing novel questions about how to address its use. Issues around how AI use impacts privacy, security, and intellectual property are pushing beyond existing legal and regulatory frameworks. The physical structures associated with AI, like data centers, require cities to update their zoning codes. And, governments themselves are considering whether and how to integrate AI processes into their work. This event will welcome a panel of experts from across campus to share the biggest current questions and new developments related to governing AI.

Thursday, September 24, 2026, 12-12:50 p.m.
Location: Olin Library Instruction Room 1 and Zoom

WashU Libraries: Discover how to get the most out of generative AI tools like ChatGPT using the CLEAR prompt framework. In this hands-on session, you’ll learn how to craft purposeful, targeted prompts that improve AI output for research, instruction, and everyday library work. Whether you’re new to AI or looking to refine your approach, this workshop will give you practical strategies to write prompts that are Clear, Logical, Explicit, Adaptive, and Reflective. GenAI wrote this workshop description.

September 24, 2026, 1-2 p.m.
DUC 239

Your chatbot’s been simmering and now it’s time to see if it’s ready to serve! Bring your chatbot prototype to this hands-on session, where faculty will “taste-test” each other’s creations and offer feedback before classroom deployment. Please note: this is a test kitchen, not a cooking class: please come with a chatbot prototype already made as this session won’t cover how to build one (psst, if you’d like a recipe, consider visiting the CTL’s webpage: Creating Gemini Gems (Chatbots) to Support Teaching).

Thursday, September 24, 2026, 5-6 p.m.
Clark-Fox Forum, Hillman Hall

This past summer, over 80 faculty members participated in the AI Curriculum Corps, a program that equips faculty with resources and support to redesign or create new modules, assignments, and courses that thoughtfully integrate or critically examine AI. Faculty led the design process supported by expert curriculum developers from the Center for Teaching and Learning, software developers from the Digital Intelligence & Innovation (DI2) Accelerator, technologists from Information Technology, and information scientists from the WashU Libraries. At this showcase, you’ll learn about some of the AICC projects across schools. Sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Digital Intelligence and Innovation (DI2) Accelerator.

Thursday, September 24, 2026, 6-7 p.m. (reception to follow)
Clark-Fox Forum, Hillman Hall

WashU welcomes José Bowen, a leading AI Innovator, scholar, and consultant. AI is already changing human work, perspectives, thinking, creativity and the limits of customization. It might also be the fastest change to writing and the greatest challenge to critical thinking in human history. AI is changing average, creativity and labor: faculty and students will now always be an AI boss. Using AI well requires two staples of higher education: asking better questions and evaluating answers. Prompting is writing. And yet AI is also reducing the intellectual friction that is essential for learning. How do we protect critical thinking and human agency while raising standards in an age where every recent graduate will be managing AI? Sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Digital Intelligence and Innovation (DI2) Accelerator.

Thursday, September 24, 2026, 8 p.m.
Brown 100

Join WashU Cinema, Film and Media Studies for a special screening of Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film, A.I. Artificial Intelligence. A discussion panel will follow the film. Unless otherwise noted, admission is: Free for WashU students with proper ID. $7 for the general public $5 for seniors, WashU alumni, and students from other schools; $4 for Washington University staff and faculty. General admission seating with payment of cash or credit.

Friday, September 25, 2026, 9-11 a.m.
Clark-Fox Forum, Hillman Hall

AI Literacy begins with knowing which AI tool to use but then requires asking better questions and evaluating responses: extensions of the critical writing and thinking skills we already teach and value. AI prompts need human context, but AI also has new capabilities: AI can search for ideas and expand perspectives. Prompting is not engineering; prompting is writing. In this interactive workshop, you will get to practice lots of techniques on a wide variety of rapidly-evolving AI tools. Our goal is to get a realistic understanding of how AI is already changing human work and thinking and how you might begin to use it to improve your research and teaching.
• We will explore dozens of AI models and API tools
• We will develop prompting ideas and skills.
• We will practice improving research and other faculty tasks with AI

Sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Digital Intelligence & Innovation (DI2) Accelerator.

Friday, September 25, 2026, 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Whitaker Learning Lab

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts: Senior Lecturer Matthew Allen will lead a Fox Friday workshop on using generative AI to create 3D models.

Friday, September 25, 2026, 12-12:50 p.m.
Location: Olin Library Instruction Room 1 and Zoom

WashU Libraries: Explore how to cite and disclose the use of artificial intelligence in academic work. Major citation styles now offer guidance on citing AI, and many publishers and organizations also require a narrative explanation of how AI was used. Join us to learn best practices for citing and disclosing AI-generated text, data, and images in your research, and to better understand how these evolving expectations shape scholarly communication. The session will also include information from the Academic Integrity Office on responsible and ethical use of AI in academic settings.

Friday, September 25, 2026, 1-2 p.m.
Steinberg Hall, Room 202

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts: Join the students in the Sam Fox School’s Master of Design for Human-Computer Interaction and Emerging Technology program to see how they are using AI to develop tools and interfaces for research and creative practice.

Friday, September 25, 2026, 1-3 p.m.
Clark-Fox Forum, Hillman Hall

This practical session will start with the implications of how AI is changing average. We will examine how we can design assignments (including writing) that will motivate students to do the hard work only they can do: AI can now customize every assignment to increase the motivation and effort of every individual student. We will discover how AI can create materials and will create design activities, simulations and a tutor bot that can support student learning without providing answers. Our most important goal, however, is to create assignments that foster and protect critical thinking and human agency while also raising standards.
• We will explore the implications of AI customization.
• We will consider how AI helps or hurts equity and inclusion on our campus.
• We will create new assignments and student support bots with AI.
• We will understand the implications of agents and vibe-coding.

Sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Digital Intelligence & Innovation (DI2) Accelerator.

September 25-27, 2026,

HackWashU, the Skandalaris Center, Bauer Leaders Academy, and the Digital Intelligence & Innovation (DI2) Accelerator will host a 48-hour AI Hackathon from September 25–27 as part of AI Perspectives Week. Students from all majors and experience levels are invited to form teams, explore AI tools, and build solutions to real-world challenges. The event will include beginner-friendly workshops, mentorship, office hours, and partner-sponsored challenges designed to help participants turn ideas into working prototypes. No prior AI or hackathon experience is required.

Tuesday, September 29, 2026, 3-4 p.m. (reception to follow)
Eric P. Newman Education Center

Center for Health AI presents Dr. Shiv Rao, Abridge Founder and CEO. For an AI system to succeed in the exam room, the room shouldn’t feel like AI is there at all. It should just feel more human. The conversation stays at the center of gravity, the clinician is fully present, and nothing about the moment betrays the intelligence working underneath it. Dr. Shiv Rao will make the case that this constraint, not raw model capability, is the real design challenge in clinical AI: how do you build a system that grows more proactive over time, flagging a care gap, prepping a clinician before they walk in, catching what would otherwise be missed, all without it ever announcing itself? Learn why the most useful AI is the kind that earns your trust quietly, and why that discipline is what actually brings the humanity back to healthcare. 

Tuesday, September 29, 2026, 12-1 p.m.
Anheuser-Busch Hall

WashU Law: The panel will address how AI is changing legal work, legal AI products, junior lawyer training, and the future direction of legal practice.

Panelists:
Matt Kelly, Partner, Head of AI Practice, Simpson Thacher
Miriam Kim, Partner, Munger Tolles & Olson 
Hon. Brian Palmucci, Associate Justice of the District Court of Massachusetts 

Moderator:
Jens Frankenreiter, Treiman Professor of Law, WashU Law

Tuesday, September 29, 2026, 4-5 p.m.
Anheuser-Busch Hall

WashU Law: The panel will discuss how a legal education translates into AI-related, legal technology, in-house, product, and innovation careers.

Panelists:
Tom Martin, CEO and Founder, LawDroid and Spectral Mind
Bethany Lee Scardella, JD ’12, Corporate Counsel, Google; WashU Law AI Advisory Board
Wei Zhu, JD ’17, Associate Vice President, Assistant General Patent Counsel – AI, Eli Lilly and Company; WashU Law AI Advisory Board

Moderator:
Jonathan Choi, James Carr Professor of Law, WashU Law

Wednesday, September 30, 2026, 12-1 p.m.
Anheuser-Busch Hall

WashU Law: This workshop will feature Daniel Schwarcz, Fredrikson & Byron Prof of Law, Distinguished University Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, who will present his paper “The Limits of Regulating AI Safety Through Liability and Insurance: Lessons from Cybersecurity.”

Wednesday, September 30, 2026, 5 p.m.
Anheuser-Busch Hall

WashU Law: This event will highlight how lawyers and AI-native legal practices are using AI.

Panelists:
Glenn Davis, JD ‘82 Partner, HeplerBroom, WashU Law AI Advisory Board
Michael Ellenhorn, JD ’97, Founder and CEO, Decipher 
Christian Puzder, Founder and CEO, Casefriend, WashU Law AI Advisory Board

Moderator:
Stefanie Lindquist, Nickerson Dean and Professor of Law, WashU Law

Details forthcoming.