Centre for AI Futures

The Centre for AI Futures is a new initiative at SOAS. It is the first centre in the world focusing on the implications of Artificial Intelligence for countries in the Global South, with a particular emphasis on the traditional SOAS areas of expertise, i.e. Africa, Asia and the Middle East. 

The core staff of the Centre brings together area expertise and a globally unique approach to the ethics of Artificial Intelligence informed by the world-leading teaching and research at SOAS and the networks we forged in the wider London-metropolitan area. 

Since 2025, the Centre has been flanked by the “AI Futures” book series published by Manchester University Press. 

The centre’s interdisciplinary and collaborative activities rest on following themes:

The Cultural Effects of AI and Data

New research initiatives focused on the variegated impacts of AI in the Global South and the theoretical and philosophical questions raised by such.

Methodological Innovations

Data-driven methodologies to facilitate research and interventions into policy and legal debates which includes teaming up with- and within the AI industry for purpose-driven applications.

Practice based Research

Working towards a critical framework to understand and study AI practitioners and their milieu and how this impacts output.

• Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Helsinki, Finland 
• Quilt.AI, India