The Livescu Initiative on Neuro, Narrative and ArtIficial intelligence (LIVESCU NNAI)
Rethinking thinking: The Livescu Initiative on Neuro, Narrative and AI (Livescu NNAI) is a multi-year research generation initiative focused on the intersections of human and other-than-human thinking. It aims to bring a humanities-driven lens to hot-button questions in artificial intelligence, neuroscience, animal cognition and other forms of thinking, now and in the past.
At Livescu NNAI we engage with a broad community of academic scholars, students, policy makers and industry professionals to promote multidisciplinary conversations and research into fundamental questions about thinking.
Check out our current main areas of inquiry [Core Projects], upcoming activities [Events] and our engagement with students [Undergraduate Research].
LL(AMBS)
You might notice a lamb-theme on this website, here is how our director (Christopher Kelty) explained this mystery in our opening event in November 2023
Want to Collaborate?
If you’re interested in collaborating with us, please reach Marcos Arranz or Christopher Kelty to discuss your ideas and how we can support each other in our endeavors.
LIVESCU NNAI Events & Collaborations
As part of our program we organize engaging events around the core ideas of the initiative for a broad audience of scholars, students and professionals.
PROMPT HUNTERS
April 14th, 2026
NNAI Livescu, AIRES and SGUO are partnering to organize a social event at UCLA to test your generative prompt guessing and have insightful discussions about AI creativity and tech with other undergraduate students.
MODEL STUDENT
Spring Quarter 2026
Model Student is a collaborative project with students to construct a discussion aimed at understanding how students have been incorporating Artificial Intelligence (particularly Large Language Models) into their education.
GOOD VIBES ONLY
March 4th, 2026
We collaborated with the UCLA Political Science Department, UCLA Program in Experimental Critical Theory, and the UCLA Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies to host a talk by renowned independent scholar and editor Dr. Robin James about her upcoming book, “Good Vibes Only“.
Empire of AI: A conversation with Karen Hao
March 4th, 2026
Award-winning AI reporter Karen Hao, author of the bestselling book Empire of AI, in an in-depth conversation on power, politics, and the future, with leaders in tech justice and policy, UCLA Professors Safiya U. Noble and Julia Powles at the Herb Alpert School of Music, Lani Hall, UCLA.
the Little Database: A Poetics of Media Formats
February 5th, 2026
Daniel Scott Snelson presents a book talk on his recently published The Little Database: A Poetics of Media Formats (University of Minnesota Press, 2025). Snelson explores how digital archives dramatically transform the artifacts they host and how these transformations might help us better understand our own private collections in turn.
Psychological Warfare, Psychiatric Violence, and the Prison Industrial Complex
November 20-21th, 2025
We organized with Dr. Danielle Carr (UCLA) a workshop on Psychological Warfare, Psychiatric Violence, and the Prison Industrial Complex, a series of sessions where the attendees shared their insights on the events that happened in the late ’60s and ’70s, when scientists and state agencies tried to link “violence” to the brain—especially in the wake of racial uprisings.