CHT’s Emerging Voices in AI and Society Fellowship

• AI and Cognition

  • As AI tools become embedded in how we learn, work, and make decisions, fundamental questions about human cognition are coming into focus. At the heart of this is a simple question: is AI more like a calculator — a tool that extends what we can do without fundamentally changing how we think — or is it something qualitatively different? AI may enable us to do more, but does it actually improve our thinking? What happens to judgment, critical thinking, and intellectual independence when entire thinking processes can be offloaded to machines? Does it matter which cognitive tasks we delegate, and which we retain? Is the same true of adults versus kids? What does it actually mean to think, and where does the boundary between human cognition and machine assistance begin to blur? When hundreds of millions of people rely on the same small set of models, what does that mean for the diversity of thought at scale? What aspects of human cognition are critical to retain?
    
    CHT is seeking a fellow to help build rigorous understanding of these questions — bringing empirical, philosophical, or interdisciplinary perspective to bear on what AI is actually doing to human cognition, and what that means for individuals and society over time.

• AI and Relationships

  • Human relationships are not just a source of comfort — they are the primary arena in which we develop empathy, navigate conflict, build trust, and become capable of genuine intimacy, all of which are key to long term contentment. What happens to those capacities when an always-available, frictionless alternative enters the picture? As AI companions, confidants, and social coaches become more prevalent, researchers, policymakers, and the public are only beginning to grapple with the questions they raise. For some without access to professional support, or navigating isolation without an obvious path out, AI may offer something genuinely useful. But the deeper and less-examined questions may be about recalibration over time: whether sustained interaction with AI that never judges, never tires, and never requires repair quietly reshapes what people expect from human relationships, and what the impacts of that might be on our broader society over time.
    
    CHT is seeking a fellow to bring rigorous empirical or conceptual thinking to this terrain — helping us understand what AI is actually doing to human relationships, and what that means for individuals, families, and communities over time.

• AI and Surveillance

  • AI is accelerating surveillance. The combination of large-scale data collection, behavioral inference, and predictive modeling means that what can be known about a person — their movements, relationships, emotional states, and emerging thoughts — has expanded dramatically, and both states and corporations are acquiring that capability. AI products designed for productivity or companionship are simultaneously intimate surveillance infrastructure. And the upcoming wave of technology products, like neurotechnology and biosensing tools, are moving from clinical settings into consumer products, promising to read users’ neural signals and infer cognitive and emotional states.
    
    CHT is seeking a fellow to help us understand this terrain, spanning concerns with state and corporate sponsored surveillance, labor power, and corporate influence. What happens when human behavior can be tracked, intent measured, and beliefs shaped at scale? How should we think about harm when the damage is diffuse and often invisible to the person experiencing it? What would meaningful protections require legally or technically? 

• AI and Spirituality

  • Artificial intelligence is accelerating deep questions about meaning, consciousness, and what it means to be human. And, AI products are also beginning to function in spaces that spiritual traditions have historically occupied — providing meaning, moral guidance, a sense of connection, and answers to existential questions. These answers are no longer answered with the well-being of the person and the framing of the religion at the core, they are first shaped by algorithms which are shaped by corporate incentives.
    
    But the relationship between AI and spirituality runs deeper than how AI products are being used in-lieu-of faith leaders. The rhetoric of Silicon Valley's most influential figures is saturated with theological language — salvation, transcendence, immortality, the creation of god-like intelligence, and the invocation of the antichrist. Scholars have begun mapping this as a coherent ideology, one that carries real consequences for how AI is built, governed, and justified to the public.
    
    CHT is seeking a fellow who can bring rigorous analytical and cross-cultural perspective to this space. What happens when AI encroaches on the domain of meaning making and begins to serve as substitutes for Faith leaders and religious studies? What happens when traditional faith functions are commodified and optimized for engagement rather than rooted in wisdom, tradition, or community? What are the consequences of an AI industry that has constructed its own theology of salvation and transcendence? 

• Inside the Machine: AI from a Technologist’s Perspective

  • This fellowship is designed to strengthen this perspective. We are looking for someone with firsthand knowledge of how leading AI systems are built, how capability claims should be critically evaluated, how decisions get made inside the organizations shaping this technology, and what drives the people making those decisions. We are also open to someone who understands the financial architecture driving AI development: the venture capital dynamics, the circular dealmaking, the pricing strategies, and the economics of companies spending at a scale that defies conventional business logic.
    
    Both kinds of insider knowledge are underrepresented in public AI discourse, and both are central to understanding why AI is being built the way it is. CHT is seeking a fellow to help us ask the questions that require an insider to answer: What is driving decisions inside leading AI companies? And what would it take to shift the incentives that are shaping this technology from the inside out?

As part of the completion of the fellows program, fellows are expected to: 

• Complete one flagship output — a research piece, long-form essay, or report intended for public impact that will be leveraged across formats (video, social, etc.)

• Write 1–3 op-eds placed in target outlets and/or published on Substack

• Participate in one podcast episode on Your Undivided Attention or another CHT platform, where a good fit

• Participate in CHT's broader content and media ecosystem

• Attend three mandatory cohort meetings and mandatory bi-weekly check-ins with the Senior Director of Strategy & Impact

CHT is looking for mid-career experts from interdisciplinary backgrounds with media experience and excitement to apply to our fellowship program. You might be: 

• A researcher or junior faculty member in psychology, sociology, philosophy, cognitive science, communications, or science and technology studies who has been studying the human impacts of technology

• A policy analyst or former government official who has been working on AI governance, digital rights, or platform accountability

• A journalist or writer who covers technology and society

• A civil society advocate or organizer who has been working on tech accountability, digital rights, or community impacts of AI and brings the perspective of the people most affected

• Someone who came up inside the tech industry who has insight on how these systems are built and what drives the decisions behind them

You’re a good fit if you: 

• Published op-eds, essays on Substack, or peer-reviewed work that they can also explain to a general audience

• Spoken at conferences where their ideas reach people outside their immediate field

• Have an active on social media and are building a following around their ideas

Expertise 

• Early- to mid-career, with a focus on the impacts of technology on society  — understands that the most important AI questions are not just technical 

• Comfortable operating in an interdisciplinary setting, at the intersection of technology, human psychology, and social structures

• Delivery-oriented research mindset: proven experience advancing rigorous research while reliably shipping concrete deliverables on time; able to navigate trade-offs between depth and timeliness.

• Intellectually honest enough to distinguish between what we know, what we suspect, and what remains genuinely open

Communication and Public Presence

• A natural communicator who is already active and engaged on the issues they care about 

• Able to bring complex ideas to diverse audiences, through writing, speaking, or an active public presence

• A willingness to adjust message delivery in order to effectively meet a diverse range of audiences,An existing audience or social media following is a plus but not a requirement; what matters is the demonstrated appetite and ability to communicate publicly

Perspective on AI and Society

• Understands that AI harms are predictable products of specific business models, design choices, and institutional incentives

• Believes that the trajectory of AI is not inevitable — that design, policy, and cultural norms can shift outcomes — and brings that constructive orientation to their work

• Understands the importance of addressing near, mid, and longer term harms and does not fall into the binary of AI Ethics vs AI Safety 

• Demonstrate a healthy questioning of the information and narratives put forth by technology companies, always investigating why companies may be incentivized to say or do what they’re saying or doing

• Equally demonstrates a nuanced perspective of the issues at hand while also knowing when decisive action needs to be taken to move the needle 

• Prioritizes impact over performative actions

Fellows will receive a $30,000 stipend based on the completion of key milestones for the program. Additionally, fellows will receive: 

• Bi-weekly guidance from the Senior Director of Strategy and Impact

• Light support from CHT's Research Team 

• Editorial, communications, and graphic design support across deliverables

• Media training and media placement support via CHT's PR agency

• A CHT email address and access to selected CHT Slack channels for the duration of the fellowship

• Listing on CHT's public fellows page

In order to apply, you will need to submit:

• A 1-2 page research proposal for each topic (you may apply for up to two) describing your proposed research, why the questions are worth answering, and how it aligns with CHT’s framing

• A CV or resume (2 pages max)

• A two minute video recording of yourself describing why you are a good fit for the position.

• A writing sample demonstrating research and analysis (a paper, working paper, or blog post).

• ⃞ I agree that I am in alignment with CHT’s frame

• ⃞ I am a citizen of the United States or eligible to work in the US (If you are not, you may still apply)