Future technologies
We need technologies that drive positive change
The possibilities of AI are endless. The time to shape them is now.
We are delighted to announce that Professor Helen Margetts OBE FBA FAcSS has been appointed as the new Director of the Data Science Institute (DSI). Professor Margetts will spearhead the transformation of the DSI into a world-leading Global Institute for Technology and Society. The Institute will realise LSE’s bold vision to place the social sciences at the centre of AI development.
Drawing on LSE’s distinctive strengths in understanding complex societal challenges and bringing people together to tackle them, the new Global Institute for Technology and Society (GIFTS) will empower an innovative, interdisciplinary and international community to help steer the most dramatic technological evolution in history.
We are seeking founding partners to help us bring our ambition to life and provide the pivotal investments which will underpin the success of GIFTS.
As AI reshapes our economies, institutions, and public life, we need to understand how these technologies can be designed and governed in ways that serve society. This means bringing social science insight directly into how AI is developed, examining how it is changing our world, and using AI tools to open up new ways of understanding people and societies.
People shape the future of technology – not the other way around.
The impact of technology on our lives is widely discussed. Artificial intelligence, for example, is already changing our economies and societies, our interactions, our institutions, how we live and how we learn, how we find love and how we make war. But as we navigate this technological transformation, we must remember that people created AI, data from people fuel it, and AI ultimately impacts people.
LSE is the university uniquely positioned to guide technology for all.
The social sciences are the only disciplines that allow us to understand people – from our individual behaviours to the complex socio-economic systems we create. Despite this, they still do not have a big enough role in the study, development and deployment of emerging technologies, and these new technologies are not yet driving discovery within the social sciences as they are in the hard sciences.
Professors Helen Margetts and Cosmina Dorobantu - Co-Directors of the Data Science Institute articulate in their blog exactly Why AI needs social science .
AI will generate a whole range of social and policy questions requiring the attention of social scientists, from the effects of large language models on education to the impact of AI on labour markets.
LSE is the perfect institution to change this. We have world-leading expertise in organisational theory, competition, cooperation, incentives, law, philosophy, behavioural science and more, which we can feed into the design of new technologies before they populate our workplaces, schools, hospitals and homes. We have over 130 years of knowledge and data which can train AI to fuel new discoveries in the social sciences. And our connections across governments and civil society enable us to inform new policies that ensure technologies improve lives and help solve global challenges, rather than making things worse.
Just about every department at LSE is working on some interesting aspect of AI and its impact on society or its use.
The Data Science Institute was established in 2020 and forms the institutional hub for data science and AI activity at LSE. It works with departments and research centres across the School, to convene, catalyse and communicate world-leading research, innovative teaching and a rich programme of engagement activities that examine how data and AI are changing our world.
The future of AI is being written now. Help us shape it.
We are very thankful for the visionary philanthropic investment of £3.7 million to DSI by alumnus Stuart Roden (BSc Economics 1984) and his family in 2022. This generous gift has enabled the DSI to become the focal point at LSE for multi-disciplinary collaboration between data and social sciences to pioneer new solutions to the world’s biggest challenges. We are now very excited to be building on DSI's transformational success with the establishment of the Global Institute for Technology and Society and we look forward to partnering with you as we shape technology for the common good.
To find out how you can help contact us at shapingtheworld@lse.ac.uk
How LSE research is shaping AI.
Below are some examples of the ground-breaking research and technological innovations that LSE is working on.
Global Forum on AI and the Social Sciences
Thanks to a $2 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation, LSE will establish an annual forum to convene dialogue and mobilise expertise, resources, and partnerships to ensure AI serves human and societal needs.
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Special report showcasing AI research at LSE
At LSE we seek to understand emerging AI technologies and their societal, economic, and political ramifications through our research, teaching, and outreach, convened by the Data Science Institute.
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AI unlocking the potential of alumni
Our Ask an Alum AI tool enables LSE students and alumni to connect with each other to seek advice on a particular topic. The platform matches questions to alumni who are best placed to answer them.
Join inHow scholarships at LSE support tomorrow's changemakers.
The social sciences don’t just explain the world – they give us tools to build a better one. Your support empowers students who can become the world leaders we all need.
For my dissertation, I am researching Labour Politics in the Age of AI, specifically the concept of “reskilling” and how economic narratives rationalise institutionalising further precarity for working and middle-class employees.
Outstanding students need your support to become the leaders shaping the future of AI
Learn more about our scholarship programmes.
We need to shape AI’s impact before markets shape it for us
The future of AI is being written now. Your support helps us research how people and societies can flourish alongside innovation.
In this short film, Professor Larry Kramer, LSE President and Vice Chancellor, explains why the role of new technologies in solving global challenges is one of the areas that our Shaping the World Campaign is focusing on.