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AI and Flourishing Initiative

  • Writer: Jonathan Teubner
    Jonathan Teubner
  • 4 days ago
  • 3 min read

Updated: 3 days ago


For more information about the initiative, contact Dr. Jonathan Teubner at: jteubner@fas.harvard.edu and Dr. Keyun Ruan at: keyun@fas.harvard.edu



Technology, at its best, is a tool crafted and deployed by human beings for human beings. 


However, modern digital and AI-driven technologies are often accepted as autonomous forces shaping society according to their own internal logic, independent of human values, cultural norms, and ethical considerations. This mistaken assumption —entertained by both tech optimists and tech pessimists—ignores the fundamental truth that technology is deeply embedded in human contexts. 


In partnership with the Happiness Foundation, this initiative seeks to re-embed technology within a rich understanding of human flourishing, ensuring AI is developed and deployed in service of individuals and communities rather than as a self-perpetuating system. Building on three initial projects—Humanity in the Digital Age, HumanConnection AI, and Flourishing Economics—we are expanding our focus to integrate AI’s impact across six interrelated dimensions of flourishing:


  • Planetary Wellbeing – Ensure AI contributes to a healthy planetary ecosystem that can sustain species and populations today and in the future.


  • Physical and Mental Wellbeing – Evaluate AI's role in emotional resilience, stress reduction, and public health.


  • Financial and Material Wellbeing – Address AI's influence (both positive and negative) on employment, economic inequality, and financial security.


  • Relational Wellbeing – Ensure AI is built to strengthen human relationships rather than substitute artificial interactions.


  • Community Wellbeing – Ensure public, political and democratic participation of key decisions of AI development, especially when it comes to issues such as data privacy, data usage and equal access.


  • Spiritual Wellbeing – Engineer AI applications to support meaningful work and leisure rather than eroding them that are aligned with ethical behavior and moral responsibility.


By situating AI within this broader framework, we reject AI determinism—the notion that artificial intelligence is an inevitable, independent force shaping our social and economic future. Instead, we affirm that AI remains a human-directed tool that must be intentionally oriented toward human flourishing and the common good. Our framework for shaping and evaluating the impact of AI technologies on human flourishing is summarized in a 2026 paper, Flourishing Considerations for AI.



We seek to challenge the view that sees technology in a self-contained sphere, running on its own rails and shaping society according to its own dictates. Instead, we argue that technology is not a self-sufficient entity, but rather a set of tools that must remain subordinate to the goals, norms, and cultural values that humans choose to prioritize and pursue. Far from being an autonomous force, technology is deeply contextual, and we advocate for a comprehensive re-embedding of technological progress within a rich understanding of human society and purpose.  -The Common Good in the Age of AI, Jonathan D. Teubner, Richard Wood, Ian Marcus Corbin


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Jonathan D. Teubner, Ph.D. is a Research Associate at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University and Co-Founder of FilterLabs, a data analytics company that leverages artificial intelligence to source high-quality localized data in hard-to-reach regions of the world. Dr. Teubner received his doctorate from the University of Cambridge (Trinity College) and has held fellowships at Yale University, the University of Virginia, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. 


Keyun Ruan, Ph.D. leads Risk Economics at Alphabet-Google and is the Founder of Happiness Foundation, a charitable think tank at the intersection of technology, happiness and human flourishing. Dr. Ruan earned her Ph.D in Computer Science from University College Dublin and has served as a Visiting Professor at New York University. 

 

For more information about the initiative, contact Dr. Jonathan Teubner at: jteubner@fas.harvard.edu and Dr. Keyun Ruan at: ruankeyun@gmail.com

 
 
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