University of Richmond Professors Awarded Grant to Develop AI Tools for TV and Film Research

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND — University of Richmond professors Taylor Arnold and Lauren Tilton have received a $250,000 grant to support their research. The funding is part of a larger $750,000 award from Schmidt Sciences and includes collaboration with two other institutions.

In partnership with colleagues at UC Berkeley and Bowdoin College, Arnold, professor of data science and statistics, and Tilton, professor of digital humanities and director of UR’s Center for Liberal Arts and AI, will develop AI models that analyze film and television.

Current AI models can analyze two-dimensional images, but not how or why they were filmed in a particular way. Over the next two years, this project will use new AI models to analyze camera movement, narrative storylines, and how editing and dialogue are used to create meaning. The Richmond team will track the evolution of patterns across thirty long-running television series.

“The project represents significant advancements in both the humanities and AI,” said Tilton. “Our research will further the ability of AI not only to recognize objects in moving images but to analyze patterns, an important step forward for all scholarly communities working with digital media.”

Tilton and Arnold’s research in the digital humanities has previously been supported by grants from the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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