GCI Catalyst Project aims to tackle human rights issues with help of AI

Cher Weixia Chen hopes being mindful of human rights will one day be just as automatic as looking both ways before crossing the street.

The George Mason University professor is spearheading an innovative project she hopes will give educators and students, along with NGOs, government, technological, and business leaders, the tools to better approach human rights issues.

Chen, a professor in the School of Integrative Studies in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, serves as the principal investigator of one of seven George Mason Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI) catalyst research projects: "AI-Powered Human Rights Education for All: Toward a Better World."Collaborating with faculty from the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) and the Costello College of Business, her team is creating an AI-driven virtual human rights classroom prototype that will provide access to practical, personalized tools to learn and apply human rights principles in daily life.

"If someday this concept could be so with us, that whenever we make a decision that affects another person, our first instinct is to ask, 'Is this respectful of their dignity and rights?' Then we could at least inch closer to a better world," said Chen, who is the founder of the George Mason Human Rights and Global Justice Initiative and was recently named the 2026 Faculty Member of the Year by the George Mason University Alumni Association. "So that is the idea, and I feel like the emergence of AI makes this possible."

The 18-month project began this summer with the team recruiting a graduate student and two undergraduate students through the Office of Creative Student Activities and Research (OSCAR).

Using a built-in Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) toolkit, users of the classroom will explore interactive scenarios and receive personalized guidance to help them navigate real-world dilemmas and assess the impact of human rights decisions, policies, and technologies.

Helping with the project's design is a trio of professors from CEC: Ziwei Zhu and Antonios Anastasopoulos from the Department of Computer Science and Sungsoo Ray Hong in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology. CEC faculty will provide expertise in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, trustworthy AI, and human-AI interaction.

"Together, we will help develop a platform that is technically robust, reliable, culturally responsive, and easy for both students and educators to use," Zhu said. "The project could make high-quality human rights education more accessible, personalized, and engaging for learners well beyond a traditional classroom. Over time, it can help people better understand how decisions in technology, business, government, and other sectors affect human rights, supporting more informed and responsible decision-making."

Lei Gao, an associate professor of finance in Costello, believes human rights are impacted just as much by the decisions made in boardrooms and financial markets-through supply chains, investment choices, labor practices, and the design of new technologies.

Gao will pilot the HRIA toolkit prototype with students in his finance courses, FNAN 444 Socially Responsible Finance and FNAN 483/MSF 683 Ethical and Professional Standards in Finance. He said targeting students is key as they represent "future analysts, managers, and entrepreneurs who will actually be making these decisions.

"Some of the most consequential decisions affecting human rights are made in boardrooms and financial markets," Gao said. "This project helps the next generation of business leaders treat human rights as part of sound decision-making, not an afterthought-and gives them a practical tool to do it."

Also contributing input in a consulting role will be renowned human rights educator Felisa Tibbitts, who served as co-editor with Chen on the book, Disciplinary Frontier of Human Rights in Higher Education. Tibbitts is currently the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Higher Education at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and will serve as consultant on the project.

In addition to reaching higher education audiences, the toolkit can also apply to educators and students at the K-12 school levels. Chen said she aspires to work with the Department of Modern and Classical Languages in CHSS to translate the toolkit for other languages. The team is looking beyond the business and technological industries, hoping to later reach international organizations, NGOs, nonprofits, and government and private sectors.

"Using human rights education as a tool, and now with the help of this, new technology-AI-it seems possible and plausible to make human rights reach as wide an audience as possible around the world," Chen said. "This project essentially highlights the transformative power of these three factors: human rights, education, and AI. For all of us, this is something new and I think it's worth trying. And for me, the most exciting part of this is it's doable, it's scalable, and it's adaptable."