MARCH 3, 2026 – MARCH 6, 2026
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
ITHACA, N.Y.
Is generative AI transforming the scientific enterprise — and if so, how? What enduring effects will these changes have, particularly at a moment when scientific inquiry is more essential than ever for addressing global challenges? And how can scientists and science policymakers best prepare for — and shape — these transformations? This three-day symposium takes these questions head-on through a sequence of talks, public panels, and discussions, covering topics including
Day 1: Tracking, Understanding, and Governing AI Use
Bringing together computer scientists building AI tools, domain scientists deploying them, funders and policy experts, and university leaders to examine how generative AI is currently used in research and how it can be responsibly governed.
Day 2: Equity, Access, and Collaboration
Focusing on the human dimensions of AI in science, including human–AI collaborations for scientific discoveries, disparities in access to tools and computing resources, the distribution of benefits and risks, and how generative AI reshapes collaboration and human–AI teamwork.
Day 3: Innovation, Policy, and Broad Impact
Examining how AI-driven changes in scientific production interact with funding and resource allocation, science communication and public trust, and emerging models of collective human–AI intelligence.
We invite scholars from technical, social scientific, and humanistic backgrounds to participate, as well as the most ardent supporters and detractors of generative AI to attend the sessions. If generative AI will be able to come through on its potential for science, these conversations will help us figure out how that future unfolds.
Held in Ithaca, N.Y. at Cornel University, this symposium is co-sponsored by the Cornell AI Initiative, Research & Innovation, the Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences, and the Center for Data Science for Enterprise and Society.