LSE to launch Global Forum on AI and the Social Sciences with $2m award from the MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) a $2 million grant to establish a Global Forum on AI and the Social Sciences. The annual Forum will convene dialogue and mobilise expertise, resources, and partnerships to ensure AI serves human and societal needs.
Professors Cosmina Dorobantu and Helen Margetts OBE FBA from LSE’s Data Science Institute (DSI) will lead the initiative, which will mobilise LSE’s world-leading expertise across the social sciences.
Each year, the Forum will have a different thematic focus. It will bring together global thought leaders, including policymakers, researchers, technologists, and civil society representatives, to address a pressing question about the social and economic impacts of AI while ensuring that the dialogue is evidence based and focused on impact.
The inaugural Forum will take place at LSE in September 2026. It will focus on how AI is reshaping work and how governments, firms, and workers can prepare for the changes ahead.
LSE will produce a State of AI and Society report to accompany each edition of the Forum. This new annual publication will offer an authoritative synthesis of existing evidence and research on the Forum’s chosen theme. It will set out the current evidence, identify the gaps in knowledge, and outline the research needed to guide the development of AI in the public interest.
The School will also launch a Commitment Charter that will accompany each Forum. The Charter will invite policymakers, funders, industry players, and researchers to pledge to work together and drive collective action.
LSE President and Vice Chancellor, Professor Larry Kramer, said:
“Thanks to generous support from the MacArthur Foundation, the Global Forum will bring world-leading social scientists together with leaders from industry and government to help ensure that AI is developed and governed to serve human and societal needs.
LSE's mission is to understand the causes of things for the betterment of society. The MacArthur Foundation’s commitment to a more just, verdant and peaceful world makes them an ideal partner for the vision that underpins the Forum.”
LSE DSI Professor in Practice, Professor Cosmina Dorobantu, said:
“We are building a new Global Institute at LSE that will ensure that social science research and expertise shape how AI is developed, deployed, and governed for the benefit of humanity. The Global Forum on AI and Social Sciences is a cornerstone of our vision for the new Institute. It will do what no other annual convening of global thought leaders does: place social science research at the heart of conversations about AI, ensuring that discussions are grounded in evidence and that they lead to concrete commitments and action. I am incredibly grateful to the MacArthur Foundation for their support, and I am very excited to be working with their talented team.”
LSE DSI Senior Adviser, Professor Helen Margetts OBE FBA, said:
“AI capabilities are advancing faster than our understanding of their social and economic consequences, and the decisions being made now will have lasting effects. This Forum responds to that urgency by bringing academia, industry and government together on a global scale to deepen our understanding of AI’s impacts, to inform labour market policymaking, and to develop commitments that support workers and communities worldwide.”
About the MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supports creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. MacArthur invests in solving some of the world’s most pressing social challenges, including advancing global climate solutions, promoting local justice reform in the U.S., revitalizing local news, expanding who creates, uses, and benefits from artificial intelligence, and strengthening the well-being of Native communities. In addition to the MacArthur Fellows Program and the global 100&Change competition, the Foundation continues its historic commitments to the role of journalism in a responsive democracy as well as the vitality of our headquarters city, Chicago.