Faculty Research

Prominent philosophers to interrogate deep AI questions through new UC Berkeley program

October 24, 2025
by Alexander Rony

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Artificial intelligence, or AI, is rapidly transforming our society. It is also raising deep questions and profound concerns.

UC Berkeley’s Department of Philosophy is launching a new initiative to bring leading scholars to campus to discuss the most pressing philosophical questions surrounding AI.

Berserkers to bigfoot: Computational folklore explained in 101 seconds

August 7, 2025
Sean Patrick Farrell

Quick: Think of “folklore.” Did images of witches, trolls, goblins or other fairytale creatures and stories populate your mind?

Next, think of something “computational.” Did you conjure a spreadsheet? An artificial intelligence prompt window? Zoolander famously looking for the files “in the computer?”

Now put the terms together: “Computational Folklore.” Sounds like a pretty wild collabo, huh?

Did you imagine a UC Berkeley professor in the Department of Scandinavian and at the Information...

Music professors Campion and Cella steer CNMAT through the AI era

September 8, 2025
by Alexander Rony

A changing of the guard is coming to UC Berkeley’s venerable Center for New Music and Audio Technologies. For almost four decades, the institution known as CNMAT has served musicians and producers with groundbreaking research and tools. Now, longtime leader Edmund Campion is preparing to retire and hand over the reins to co-director and fellow music professor Carmine-Emanuele Cella.