Howard University’s newest HBCU to embrace AI

Howard University it leans boldly into the future of innovation by embracing artificial intelligence as a tool for real-world equity, access and impact. At the center of these efforts is Dr. Gloria Washington, director of the Howard Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HCAI), a research center funded by the Office of Naval Research. Under her leadership, Washington and her team are working to ensure that AI is not only cutting-edge but useful for everyone—from HBCU students and faculty to government agencies and a wide range of industry sectors—while keeping human needs, ethics, and inclusion at the forefront of technological advancement.

Last summer, Washington spearheaded the Elevate Black Voices project, a Google-sponsored initiative aimed at making new technologies more inclusive. The project has developed a large database containing more than 600 hours of recorded African American dialects collected from communities across the United States.

Launched to address persistent disparities in automated speech recognition systems, Project Elevate Black Voices seeks to reduce the errors that often occur when the technology encounters different language patterns. By improving the way these systems recognize and interpret different dialects, the initiative works to ensure that speech-based technologies are more accurate, fair and representative of the people who use them.

According to Washington, the project also serves a broader purpose beyond technical improvement. It lays the groundwork for building a group of HBCUs dedicated to examining how this data can be responsibly preserved, protected and ethically applied in future technologies, including artificial intelligence.

“It’s exciting because HBCUs we have worked with in the past we’ve been excited about using the dataset as well as developing these fair use guidelines about how artificial intelligence affects the larger African American English speaking community,” Washington said. “It’s really interesting. This is an ongoing project that we believe will take us into new territory.”

Unlike traditional AI research centers that mainly concentrate on technical development, HCAI emphasizes improving tactical decision-making in high-pressure environments. Under Washington’s leadership, the institute is developing advanced tools, including chatbots powered by large language models (LLM) — AI systems trained on massive amounts of text — and augmented reality (AR) applications designed to support naval officers in making more informed and timely decisions in the field. These initiatives address highly complex challenges, connecting cutting-edge technology with practical, real-world applications to improve performance and outcomes in critical situations.

“What this tool is supposed to do is help (make) decision-making less burdensome,” explained third-year doctoral student, software engineer and former educator Christopher Watson. “So it will be a large language model paired with an augmented reality component that can interface with the model.” Simply put, it will turn text output into interactive augmented reality screens that show the importance of decisions using colors, icons, and other graphical information.

Watson is focusing on the large language model side of the project, fine-tuning the Tactical Decision Making Under Stress (TADMUS) model, which includes a technique known as fetch-augmented generation. However, as Washington emphasizes, technical work only makes sense if it brings tangible benefits to real people. To ensure this, HCAI takes a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together experts in computer science and engineering with scholars in the social sciences, education, health and public policy. This collaborative framework enables researchers to not only design advanced artificial intelligence systems, but also to assess how these technologies impact individuals, communities and institutions, ensuring that innovation remains grounded in human needs.

Dr. Lucretia Williams specializes in human-computer interaction, with a particular focus on applications in healthcare and education. For the ONR project, her lab examines how stress affects decision-making, providing critical insights that inform the development of AI tools designed to support high-pressure real-world scenarios.

“Specifically, I created two simulated environments, one calm and one stressful,” she said. “A quiet environment includes light ambient noise, similar to what you’d hear in a coffee shop, and plenty of time to read and make a decision. But a stressful environment includes loud background noise, people being able to shout commands, and super limited time.”

The institute’s initiatives span multiple sectors, including health, education, workforce development and public policy. Researchers at HCAI prioritize the development of AI tools that are transparent, reliable and practical, ensuring that these technologies can be effectively adopted by organizations and decision makers.

Through HCAI, Howard University plays a vital role HBCUs can play in shaping the future of artificial intelligence. By putting humanity, equity and interdisciplinary collaboration at the center of its work, the university is redefining what responsible and impactful innovation looks like in the era of artificial intelligence.