During the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Fudan University released the English edition of the Blue Book on the Development of AI for Social Sciences and Humanities, showcasing the university's latest explorations in advancing the deep integration of AI with the humanities and social sciences and in serving the building of the Independent Knowledge System of Philosophy and Social Sciences. Since 2025, the Comprehensive Laboratory of National Development and Intelligent Governance at Fudan University has organized researchers from within and beyond the university to compile and release the Blue Book worldwide, systematically reviewing the frontier advances, organizational models, and institutional experience of AI plus the humanities and social sciences. The 2026 edition takes as its theme Rediscovering the Value of 'Deep Thinking,' highlighting the two-way empowerment and integrated symbiosis of AI and the humanities and social sciences. Its content unfolds along the framework of concept-driven, method-based, and system-building, bringing together more than 40 experts and scholars from Fudan University across some 15 disciplines, including philosophy, the humanities and social sciences, AI, big data, and the natural sciences, and more than 20 departments, institutes, and centers. It is an important achievement of the integrated innovation of Fudan's new liberal arts ecosystem.
The Blue Book notes that, as the era of intelligent agents arrives, the relationship between AI and the humanities and social sciences is moving from tool-based empowerment toward deep integration. AI not only improves research efficiency but is also beginning to change the ways in which questions are posed, evidence is organized, knowledge is produced, and society is governed. At the same time, the humanities and social sciences also need to provide problem awareness, a knowledge foundation, a sense of values, and a governance framework for the development of AI. The Blue Book stresses that the faster intelligence evolves, the more it becomes necessary to rediscover the value of deep thinking, using depth of thought to guide the changes brought by intelligence. The China Universities AI for SSH Index, released together with the Blue Book, offers the first systematic observation of the level of AI-driven development in the humanities and social sciences at Chinese universities, providing a reference for identifying the foundations of development, comparing paths of construction, discovering strengths and weaknesses, and advancing system-building.
The release of the Chinese and English editions of the Blue Book at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference is both an important window for Fudan University to showcase its AI plus new liberal arts explorations to the world and an important effort to bring the AI for SSH development experience of Chinese universities into international exchange and to contribute Chinese solutions, further promoting two-way empowerment and integrated symbiosis between AI and the humanities and social sciences at a higher level.
Abstract download link：
The 2026 Blue Book on the Development of AI for Social Sciences and Humanities.pdf
