Leveraging AI for Societal and Sustainable Good

Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities (SIAH), Sustainability and Resilience Institute (SRI) and Web Science Institute (WSI) this week played co-hosts to an interdisciplinary workshop Leveraging AI for Societal and Sustainable Good.

This workshop was one of many AI-focussed events taking place as part of this months AI@Southampton Festival 2025.  The festival brings together over 50 contributors from across the University for 10 days of AI related events, talks, workshops and performances open to all staff, providing an opportunity to learn more about the world-leading AI related research, education and training activity from all five faculties.

The workshop invited researchers and academics from across faculties and career stages to explore, develop and capture emerging research questions on how AI can be used as a tool for the benefit of people, society and the world we live in.

Professor Lindsay-Marie Armstrong , SRI Deputy Director, Associate Professor Lexi Webster , Digital Humanities Deputy Director and Dr Richard Gomer , Senior Computer Science Lecturer shared insights and perspectives from their respective fields and contributed to wider discussions on how AI can be applied to further the development of three key areas:

1. Society
2. Sustainability
3. Data

Conversation focussed not only on known issues, but also on future questions to help shape the research roadmap, including:

• What role can/should people and societies play in designing AI-driven solutions that impact the places we work, live and enjoy, and services and systems we use?
• How can AI help protect the world around us?
• Who owns and controls individual’s data and what policies or agreements are needed to improve access to data sources?

Participants built new connections while scoping out potential research projects of the future - taking into consideration the challenges, opportunities and target stakeholders needed to develop the seed of an idea into a reality.  Three potential research areas were identified, these included:

• Building energy efficiency : sub-hourly datasets - interpretable AI models - decision making society
• Civic partnerships : Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, AI-literacy among citizens with Citizens Advice Bureau, Co-creation projects.
• Buildings detection in low and middle income countries using AI : increase accuracy of livelihoods and localities to inform Local Authority, Government and NGO policy.

Bringing three research institutes together for this workshop has uncovered three important and timely topics with real potential for future interdisciplinary research surrounding AI and its impacts on sustainability and/in society.

Researchers have the chance to further explore their ideas through SRI’s research funding opportunities. Applications are open until 20th July for the institute’s annual funding calls:

• Responsive & Travel Fund
• Proposal Development Seed Fund
• Early Career Colleagues Fellowship

Keep in touch with the Institutes

• SIAH: Find out more about the themes and work SIAH here
• SRI: Details of SRI’s funding calls can be found here
• WSI: Register here to stay up to date with news and events from Web Science Institute.