AI + Human Flourishing Initiative
At this critical moment, when human consciousness and emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) are being shaped and adapted symbiotically, this research initiative organizes interdisciplinary expertise to address global challenges to the flourishing of humans.
The AI + Human Flourishing research initiative, run by the CIRCL, Contemplative Innovation + Research Co-Lab, investigates the bidirectional loop of how AI technologies can enhance human flourishing, and how lived human knowledge about flourishing, can more deeply inform alignment strategies at the human-AI interface.
The initiative takes a twofold approach:
- Experimenting with how emerging technologies of intelligence can be leveraged to enhance human flourishing;
- Learning from human contemplation and wisdom to live better with AI.
As such, this initiative intersects humanistic and scientific research at the triangulation of emerging technologies of intelligence + lived experience + the contemplative sciences.
Given that dilemmas of the AI age are too complex for a single discipline, the initiative recognizes the imperative of an integrated transdisciplinary approach. Facilitated by the Contemplative Sciences Center (CSC), faculty and trainees from across the University of Virginia and beyond, foster overlapping domains of research, innovation, and dialogue. Efforts across domains query, formulate, and actualize critical paradigms to advance research, inform human-AI coding and behaviors, and contribute to vectoring AI and humans towards flourishing.
The initiative convenes an interdisciplinary research interest group of faculty and trainees to incubate shared interests in AI-driven interventions that enhance wellbeing and spirituality. Through building collaborative networks, modeling novel solutions, and garnering efforts and expertise, the initiative is committed to further establishing this emerging research area.
For more information on AI Research at the University, see AI@UVA.
To get involved, email Contemplative Sciences Center Research: circl@virginia.edu.