Editors’ Introduction:

Telling Human Stories in the Age of Generative AI

Abstract

This issue of GRACE: Global Review of AI Community Ethics arrives at a critical juncture, as generative AI rapidly reshapes the boundaries of creative labor, authorship, policymaking, and public life. From courtroom debates and copyright disputes to deeply personal accounts of disability, mental health, and surveillance, the contributions in this volume offer grounded, often urgent reflections on how AI-generated content and systems are altering the core of our shared human experience. 

We received more than 3,000 submissions for this issue, and we were moved by the breadth, originality, and thoughtfulness of the work. The selected pieces reflect our editorial commitment to uplifting community-based, student-led, and ethics-oriented perspectives on AI ethics. Most contributions come from undergraduate students, with the exception of “Who Holds the Camera?” co-authored by former GRACE editors Muhammad Khattak and Samuel Eli Cohen—now in graduate school—and Stanford staff member Kiyoshi Taylor. Their continued work affirms GRACE's mission to remain a platform for emerging thinkers and those who began here and continue to shape the field. In many of our editorial discussions we addressed concerns about censorship and trolling of student work that uses language of design justice and equity. Rather than filter those words to avoid trolls, we opted to affirm the rhetorical choices of our authors.