Stanford Unifies AI and Data Science Institutes

Recently, Stanford University announced a major restructuring related to AI: it will merge its two flagship AI and data science organizations into a single institute. The combined institute will retain the Stanford HAI name and will be led by computer scientist James Landay, who will continue serving as the Denning Director.University leaders believe the human-centered focus is critical to the future of technology. It is reflected in the broad sweep of faculty involved – from engineering to medicine to the humanities and more.

Former Stanford president John Hennessy and HAI founding director Fei-Fei Li will serve as co-chairs of the institute’s advisory council. Li will also take on a new university-wide role as Special Advisor on AI to President Jonathan Levin.

The merger combines HAI’s network of more than 400 scholars, extensive industry affiliates program, and $60 million in cumulative grant funding with Stanford Data Science’s high-performance Marlowe computing cluster and early scholar fellowship program. Levin describes the new Stanford HAI as “the front door for AI at Stanford.”

Stanford HAI will organize its work around three pillars: advancing AI and data science for discovery across fields, transforming education from K-12 through lifelong learners, and examining and shaping AI’s societal impact through evidence-based research.

This comprehensive approach ensures the university can influence AI development across foundational algorithms, real-world applications, economic analysis, and governance frameworks. The institute will also partner with global organizations to extend its human-centered approach beyond Stanford.

Landay says Stanford HAI’s defining commitment will be openness: open science, open-source code, open datasets, and open education.

“What makes Stanford’s approach impactful is our commitment to operating as an open community,” said Landay. “We publish in open forums, we champion open research, we make knowledge accessible. That’s what differentiates universities from the frontier AI companies dominating artificial intelligence today.”

Landay is now working to define what “human-centered AI” means in practice – pressing researchers to design for and weigh impact on users, communities, and society from a project’s inception through to its development, deployment, and maintenance phases.

The new institute will harness team science – spanning Stanford’s seven schools and partners across sectors – to tackle AI’s toughest challenges while preserving what universities do best: pursue fundamental questions, train the next generation, and serve the public good.

“This is not just a stronger institute,” Landay said. “It is a new model for how a university organizes AI and data science to have real impact in the world.”

About Landay

Landay has spent three decades working in what’s now called human-centered computing. His 1990s design software SILK foreshadowed tools like Figma and Canva; his UbiFit project in the early 2000s anticipated the Fitbit and Apple Watch. In 2024, he received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award.

About Stanford HAI

HAI, founded in 2019 by Li, former Stanford provost John Etchemendy, computer scientist Chris Manning, and Landay, has grown into a multidisciplinary hub spanning research, education, and policy. It was founded on the principle that Stanford could play a leading role in developing AI technology and applications, and also in leading discussions on what it means to be fully human in an age of machine intelligence. HAI runs the Congressional Boot Camp on AI for policymakers and centers studying foundation models, the digital economy, the science of intelligence, and ambient intelligence for aging in place. It launched fellowship programs for early career scholars, hired junior and senior faculty, developed executive and policy education programs, and produces the annual AI Index.

About Stanford Data Science

Stanford Data Science, launched and led by Emmanuel Candès, the Barnum-Simons Chair in Mathematics and Statistics in the School of Humanities and Sciences, built out research centers in sustainability, astrophysics, causal science, neuroscience, and other fields; created interdisciplinary graduate student fellowships; recruited faculty members in partnership with collaborating departments; and spearheaded the establishment of the Marlowe cluster. Guido Imbens, the Applied Econometrics Professor and professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business, served as faculty director for the past year and led the transition team with Landay and Li before returning earlier this year to focus on his teaching and research.