As of January, less than half of Americans made intentional use of artificial intelligence tools (AI) to perform a variety of common tasks, but a substantial minority used AI for humanities-related tasks.

A growing numbers of parents are either delaying or selectively administering immunizations – or choosing not to vaccinate their children at all. A new Academy report makes clear that reversing this trend requires dedicated research on how vaccine decisions are made and the best ways to communicate factual information to vaccine-hesitant parents.

Amplifying a recommendation in Our Common Purpose, this OpEd in the Boston Globe proposes aligning state and federal election calendars to strengthen democracy by increasing participation, representation, and engagement in voting. 

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded by visionaries who foresaw that the nascent republic would benefit from the expertise of learned citizens to guide its development, health, and integrity through whatever challenges may arise.

Today, the clarity of that vision has never been more evident. We find ourselves in a time of deepening divides across lines of politics, race, religion, income, and opportunity. The institutions we have long turned to for leadership and information are under fire, as trust in the media, government, commercial enterprise, and academia declines. Strong and responsive institutions and a healthy civil society can carry us through crises and are vitally important in their aftermath.

The Academy, in partnership with the Open Research Community Accelerator (ORCA) and the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program, launched the Modernizing Academic Appointment and Advancement (MA3) Challenge. The initiative invites U.S. colleges and universities to transform academic hiring, review, promotion, and tenure practices.

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has received a $1 million grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to advance the recommendations in Our Common Purpose from ideas to implementation.

It is with profound sadness that I note the death on October 10, 2014, of Robert W. Fri, my cochair on the Academy’s Alternative Energy Future project.

When forced to decide between a career in biochemistry or psychology in the spring of 1950, Jerome Kagan chose the latter because of a gnawing puzzlement provoked by the observation that apparently sane people living in the same community held different beliefs about love, honesty, and whom was entitled to respect and whom to scorn.

Black World War II veterans were denied the housing and education benefits of the 1944 G.I. Bill. An article in The New Republic endorses and explores legislation and a recommendation in the report from the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy, championed by Commission member Cornell Brooks, to extend those benefits to the direct descendants of those G.I.'s.

The Humanities Indicators project recently released a series of reports on the life cycle of doctoral degree recipients in every field, shedding light on the challenges involved in earning the degree, and the occupational outcomes and incomes of those with a Ph.D.

As Board Chair Nancy Andrews notes in her message, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect every aspect of Academy life. Yet despite the challenges of the last eighteen months, by nearly every measure the strength of our community of members has only increased.

Ira Katznelson and Samuel Issacharoff discussed the state of security and freedom and the role of fear in a modern democracy.

The American Academy introduced a fully revised Humanities Indicators website (http://HumanitiesIndicators.org), a new report showing contraction across a number of funding streams for the field, and a new data forum designed to spur further dialogue about the state of the humanities.

Militaries, like civilian industries, have a profound capacity to pollute the air, land, and water. What are the estimates of military impact on the environment? And what are some ways to reduce it? The Academy convened a range of experts to consider impacts and options.

The Academy's Commission on Reimagining Our Economy (CORE) is rethinking the values, policies, narratives, and metrics that shape the nation’s political economy. Rather than focus on how the economy is doing, the Commission seeks to direct a focus onto how Americans are doing. As part of this work, the Academy hosted a conversation with U.S. Representative Jim Himes, Chair of the House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth and U.S. Representative Bryan Steil, the Ranking Member of the Committee.

The closing program of the Academy’s 2025 Induction weekend featured a presentation by new member David Dunning on the psychology of overconfidence and its influence on decision-making, followed by a conversation with Academy President Laurie L. Patton. An edited transcript of the presentation and conversation follows.

Animals live in a world of limited resources. When resources that affect survival and reproduction–food, water, mates, nest sites, burrows, and so on–are scarce, conflicts of interest arise.

The study and improvement of agricultural methods and practices has been an area of interest for the American Academy since its founding in 1780.

Now is the moment to think about the people, places, and practices of democracy, write Hollie Russon Gilman, Darshan Goux, and Elizabeth Youngling in this op-ed.