The AI CoLab
A decade of undergraduates doing real, original AI research on the questions that matter — open to every division of the liberal arts.
A curriculum built in 2016
Jon and Katherine Elkins co-founded the AI CoLab and the world's first human-centered AI curriculum and lab at Kenyon in 2016. Students bring the integrated humane-studies tradition to AI from the inside, building and testing systems rather than only studying them.
A field, not just a course
This was field-founding, not a single elective: the world's first Human-Centered AI curriculum and lab — as Kenyon states — launched six years before ChatGPT and three years before Stanford's HAI, and now reflected in adoption across 4,760 institutions. And it broadens who does serious technical work rather than narrowing the humanities — the gateway course is 61% women and over 90% non-STEM majors, with a 0% dropout rate. Rigor without reductionism: real AI engineering that keeps the humane question at the center.
The courses
- IPHS 200 — Programming Humanity
- IPHS 300 — AI for Humanity
- IPHS 391 — Frontiers of AI: GenAI Multi-Agent Networks: one of the first interdisciplinary, project-based agentic-AI courses, open to every division of the liberal arts. Approved 2023; first taught Fall 2024; last taught Fall 2025; more than half the content is rewritten each year as the field moves. Course materials:
- IPHS 484 — Senior Seminar
Reach
Jon and Katherine Elkins have mentored 400+ original student research projects since 2016; the best 200+ are published on Digital Kenyon, where they have been downloaded 107,000+ times from 4,760 institutions across 198 countries (as of June 10, 2026). Adopting institutions include Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and Princeton. Browse the work on Digital Kenyon →
On the road
Co-founder Katherine Elkins has presented the program widely — including at Carleton College's Day of Digital Humanities, the Kahn Institute at Smith College, Washington University, Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar, and the OpenAI Forum.
What is the AI CoLab?
The lab Jon co-founded with Katherine Elkins at Kenyon College in 2016, home to the world's first human-centered AI curriculum and AI Lab.
What is IPHS 391?
One of the first interdisciplinary, project-based agentic-AI courses, open to every division of the liberal arts; approved in 2023 and first taught in Fall 2024.
How widely is the student work used?
Across more than 400 mentored projects, the best 200+ are published on Digital Kenyon, where they have been downloaded 107,000+ times from 4,760 institutions across 198 countries.