Large Language Models (LLMs) have revolutionized both the modeling of language and how we as a society interact with AI. Penn social scientists and computer scientists use LLMs to study how we represent language in the brain, how messages in the media impact different social groups, and ways that AI impacts human behavior.

AI holds great promise yet at the same time generates significant concerns in the context of applications in the justice system. Penn researchers are using AI to address a range of practical concerns, from error rates in forensic toolmark analysis to misidentification rates in facial recognition algorithms.

How do blood vessel networks optimize the flow of nutrients in mammals, and what can we learn from rivers, leaves and other networks? How do social networks shape language, and how does language shape social networks? Penn faculty are using AI to better understand complex networks that are ubiquitous in our bodies, in nature, and in social media.

The School’s astronomy group are world leaders in applying AI to big data astronomy, in collaboration with theorists at the Center for Particle Cosmology. Recent discoveries include the largest comet ever found, advances in the cosmological puzzles of dark matter and dark energy, and ‘interpreting’ what deep learning tells us from galaxy images.