HumanAId: Human-Centred AI for a Sustainable and Adaptive Society

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About the Project

The HumanAId project focuses on the application of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models (LLMs), in various societal domains to strengthen democratic processes, education, and interpersonal communication. The project as a whole seeks to enhance understanding of the broader social and cultural implications of AI-driven devices and programs assuming communicative roles traditionally associated with humans.

Premises

The project is founded on the premise that generative AI – capable of producing text and audiovisual content based on its training data – can significantly contribute to addressing societal challenges such as the decline of traditional public deliberation mechanisms in democratic societies and the necessity of adapting the education system to the realities of the 21st century. At the same time, the rapid advancement of generative AI poses new challenges and risks that require a thorough understanding of its societal, political, and ethical dimensions to ensure responsible and successful integration into human activities.

  • A key challenge is ensuring that AI tools align with factual accuracy and the values of democratic societies. The project aims to develop safe and responsible models that support public deliberation as a foundation for decision-making processes in the public sphere.
  • Another challenge is integrating AI tools into the educational system. The project will analyze effective ways to incorporate these tools into various didactic methodologies in primary and secondary education. It will include the creation of a catalog of AI-supported teaching methods and the development of an experimental platform for formative student assessment, as well as AI-based assistive tools optimized for the Czech education system, which will be evaluated by educators.
  • A fundamental prerequisite for the responsible and successful use of AI is understanding the dynamics of communication between humans and AI systems. The interdisciplinary research will focus on analyzing verbal and non-verbal communication, contextual and cultural influences, and the principles of mutual adaptation between communicative agents. The objective is to expand scientific knowledge and develop a novel theoretical framework that enables the advancement of interpretable and explainable AI across a wide range of applications.

The emergence of generative language models also raises numerous technical, linguistic, cognitive, ethical, and legal questions, many of which stem from the nature of these models as “black boxes.” Therefore, the project will also explore a deeper understanding of their behavior, the relationship between their outputs and training data, and their multilingual capabilities. By directly integrating technological advancements in AI with humanities and social science perspectives, the project aims to provide practical solutions for the responsible and effective implementation of AI in key areas of public life.

Basic Information

Project Number: CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008691

Implementation Period: 1 March 2025 – 31 December 2028

Operational Program: Jan Amos Comenius: Social Sciences and Humanities

Lead Institution: Charles University, Faculty of Arts (CU FA), in cooperation with the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (CU FMP) and the Faculty of Social Sciences (CU FSS)

Partners: Faculty of Education, Palacký University in Olomouc (PdF UPOL), Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IP CAS), prg.ai, Kampus Hybernská

Scientific Director:
doc. Mgr. Vít Šisler, Ph.D.

vit.sisler@ff.cuni.cz

Project Manager:
Ing. Jan Kulvejt

jan.kulvejt@ff.cuni.cz

Finance Manager:
Ing. Iva Mikulášková

mikulaskova@ufal.mff.cuni.cz

Data Steward:
Mgr. Kateřina Zvoníková

katerina.zvonikova@ff.cuni.cz

Work Packages

AI and Democracy

WP1 focuses on the application of large language models (LLMs) to support democratic processes, particularly public deliberation as a foundation for decision-making.

Lead WP1 Researcher:
doc. PhDr. Vít Střítecký, M.Phil., Ph.D.
vit.stritecky@fsv.cuni.cz

Collaborating Institutions:
CU FSS, CETE-P (IP CAS), CU FA

AI and Didactics

WP2 investigates the use of AI in educational settings and its effective and ethical integration into didactic methods for primary and secondary education.

Lead WP2 Researcher:
Mgr. Čeněk Pýcha, Ph.D.
cenek.pycha@ff.cuni.cz

Collaborating Institutions:
CU FA, PdF UPOL, Kampus Hybernská

AI and Communication

WP3 examines communication between humans and AI, with a focus on verbal and non-verbal modeling, contextual and cultural influences, and mutual adaptations.

Lead WP3 Researcher:
PhDr. Helena Lipková, Ph.D.
helena.lipkova@ff.cuni.cz

Collaborating Institutions:
CU FA, CETE-P (IP CAS)

AI and Science

WP4 investigates the technical, linguistic, cognitive, ethical, and legal aspects of large language models and their adaptation to tasks formulated within RO1-3.

Lead WP4 Researcher:
doc. Mgr. Barbora Vidová Hladká, Ph.D.
hladka@ufal.mff.cuni.cz

Collaborating Institutions:
CU FMP, prg.ai

This website was created with the support of the project “Human-Centered AI for a Sustainable and Adaptable Society,” registration number CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008691, co-funded by the European Union.