Oxford University appoints first Lau Fellow in Creativity and AI
Media artist and AI pioneer Refik Anadol has been selected as the first recipient of the Lau Fellowship in Creativity and AI at Oxford University’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.
The Fellowship is a new initiative which aims to bring a leading practitioner in culture or technology to Oxford University every year. The Fellow will work with academics in the University’s Humanities Division to develop a project exploring the evolving intersection of technology and human creativity.
This has been made possible by a donation from Alan Lau, who is Chief Business Officer of Animoca Brands and Vice Chair of M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture.
Refik Anadol’s immersive AI artworks have been shown worldwide in over 70 cities across six continents, and he was recently listed on the 2025 TIME100 AI list and created the front cover.
He will use the Lau Fellowship to advance thought around generative AI and literature archives through his Large Nature Model (LNM) in conversation with Oxford literature academics and the Bodleian Libraries.
This will build on his existing LNM which has been trained on half a billion images of nature from major institutions including the Smithsonian Museum and Natural History Museum. The LNM is the foundational AI model utilized by Refik Anadol Studio to create the inaugural exhibition at Dataland, the world’s first museum of AI arts which will open in Los Angeles next year.
Mr Anadol will work in collaboration with Dr Raphaël Millière of the Institute for Ethics in AI in the Philosophy Faculty, and Oxford literature academics. Together they will explain their research at a major public engagement event next year.
Refik Anadol said: “This Fellowship is an invitation to rethink creativity at a moment when intelligence itself is being redefined. Working with Oxford’s extraordinary scholars and the Bodleian Library, I hope to explore how generative AI can become a new form of cultural memory that listens to humanity’s past while imagining ethical, poetic futures.”
Alan Lau said: “I am proud to support this fellowship at the Schwarzman Centre. The Centre encourages collaboration across humanities fields, in close dialogue with technology. The AI x Creativity Fellow will have direct access to Oxford’s scholars, archives, and knowledge networks to advance thinking on how AI could reshape creativity not just in art, music, dance, design, etc, but also the broader creative processes that shape daily life.”
Dr Raphaël Millière, Associate Professor at the Institute for Ethics in AI, said: “Generative AI is changing how we make and interpret text and images, but it also raises hard questions about authorship, authenticity, and how we relate to cultural heritage. I’m excited to join Refik Anadol and Oxford colleagues for a conversation that explores the creative possibilities and the philosophical stakes of this new technology.”
Alan Lau is an Oxford alumnus who also serves as co-chair of both the Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee of London’s Tate Modern and the Asia Art Circle of New York’s Guggenheim Museum.
The Schwarzman Centre co-locates Oxford University’s internationally recognised Humanities faculties for the first time in a state-of-the-art building designed by Hopkins Architects. From April 2026, a programme of public performances will bring the Centre’s performances spaces (including the 500-seat Sohmen Concert Hall and a 250-seat theatre) to life.
Photographs: Refik Anadol photographed by Efsun Erkilic (above); A still from Refik Anadol's work (below)
