Introduction

As society grapples with the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), there is a pressing need to ensure its benefits align with human wellbeing. This blog explores the development of beneficial AI that promotes individual and societal flourishing, grounded in wellbeing economics, positive psychology, and philosophy. By focusing on human wellbeing as a foundation, envisioning positive futures for AI, and emphasizing the critical role of foundation models, we can steer AI development towards enhancing holistic human experiences and societal health.

We will delve into the broader context of AI development, which often neglects direct support for human flourishing, and highlight the need for positive societal visions. Concrete steps forward, such as understanding desired futures, developing wellbeing measures, training models with wellbeing in mind, and deploying AI thoughtfully, will be discussed. Finally, we will address key questions on fostering global interdisciplinary dialogue, measuring AI's impact, and incentivizing companies to prioritize human welfare.

Human Wellbeing as a Foundation

Despite the lack of a conclusive definition of human wellbeing, common factors like supportive relationships, meaningful work, and positive emotional experiences can be universally recognized as essential for a good life. AI should therefore be designed to enhance these aspects. Wellbeing economics, positive psychology, and philosophy provide valuable insights into what constitutes a good life, which can inform the development of AI technologies.

By integrating these insights, AI can be designed to support human flourishing. For example, AI could be used to create more meaningful work environments, enhance social connections, and promote positive emotional experiences. This requires a shift from traditional metrics of success, such as economic growth, to a focus on holistic human wellbeing.

Positive Visions of AI

Ensuring AI technologies support human flourishing requires envisioning future societies where AI integrates beneficially. For example, AI could revitalize institutions, empower personal growth, and cultivate relationships. Drawing parallels to social media's impact, it is crucial AI's transformative potential be guided positively from the outset.

To achieve this, we need to develop positive visions of AI that prioritize human wellbeing. This involves interdisciplinary efforts to redefine institutions affected by AI, ensuring they promote critical thinking, agency, and social belonging. By envisioning positive futures for AI, we can guide its development in a way that supports individual and societal flourishing.

Critical Role of Foundation Models

The rapid development of AI models like GPT-3 and GPT-4 shows their significant potential for societal integration, necessitating they be trained and evaluated based on their support for wellbeing. New algorithms and wellbeing-based evaluations are fundamental to this effort.

Foundation models, which can understand and respond to qualitative aspects of human wellbeing, offer a promising avenue for these assessments. By training datasets to include wellbeing-relevant data and fine-tuning models to support desired behaviors and capabilities, we can create AI that promotes human flourishing. Techniques like pretraining, fine-tuning, and alignment need to concentrate on human wellbeing to ensure AI's positive impact on society.

The Broader Context

AI development often neglects direct support for human flourishing, focusing instead on abstract metrics like economic growth or education. To remedy this, insights from wellbeing science should be integrated into AI's technical frameworks. Various theories of wellbeing (e.g., hedonism, desire satisfaction, PERMA) can inform the creation of AI tools like proficient coaches or intelligent journals aimed at enhancing holistic human experience and societal health.

Technology significantly impacts societal life—often unpredictably, as seen with the internet and cellphones. AI's pervasive influence necessitates anticipatory measures that align its development with societal values. This involves interdisciplinary efforts to redefine institutions affected by AI, ensuring they promote critical thinking, agency, and social belonging.

Concrete Steps Forward

Understanding Desired Futures: Engaging global, interdisciplinary discussions to explore the values and futures desired in an AI-driven society is essential. These discussions should involve diverse stakeholders, including ethicists, technologists, policymakers, and the general public, to ensure a comprehensive understanding of desired futures.

Developing Wellbeing Measures: Reliable metrics are needed to evaluate AI's impact on human welfare. Foundation models, which can understand and respond to qualitative aspects of human wellbeing, offer a promising avenue for these assessments. Developing and standardizing wellbeing measures will be crucial for assessing AI's impact on both individual and societal levels.

Training Models with Wellbeing in Mind: Training datasets should include wellbeing-relevant data, fine-tuned to support desired behaviors and capabilities. Techniques like pretraining, fine-tuning, and alignment need to concentrate on human wellbeing. This requires collaboration between AI developers and wellbeing researchers to ensure models are designed with human flourishing as a priority.

Deploying AI Thoughtfully: AI applications should prioritize human flourishing. There are exciting opportunities for AI to revolutionize social media, education, and even mental health—if developed and applied thoughtfully to support positive societal outcomes. This involves careful consideration of the ethical implications of AI deployment and ongoing evaluation of its impact on human wellbeing.

Conclusion

The ultimate aim is to guide AI's development through a pragmatic blend of vision and caution. Positive visions should be continually iterated upon as models evolve, ensuring AI's integration into society supports human wellbeing over both short and long terms. By focusing on human wellbeing as a foundation, envisioning positive futures for AI, and emphasizing the critical role of foundation models, we can steer AI development towards enhancing holistic human experiences and societal health.

Key questions that still need to be answered include how to create and maintain a global interdisciplinary dialogue about the future of AI and its alignment with human values, what methodologies can be developed to reliably measure AI's impact on both individual and societal wellbeing, and how large AI companies might be incentivized or regulated to align their developments with long-term human flourishing.

Next steps for readers interested in learning more include engaging in interdisciplinary discussions about the future of AI, exploring the latest research on wellbeing science and its applications to AI, and advocating for policies and practices that prioritize human wellbeing in AI development. By staying informed and actively participating in these efforts, we can help ensure AI technologies are developed and deployed in ways that support human flourishing.