Engaged public & new norms
Making conscious choices around what we want to preserve in the age of AI
V2 Preserving What Makes Us Deeply Human in the Age of AI
As AI products permeate into workplaces, classrooms, and relationships, the harms associated across society are not random — they stem from the same extractive business models that prioritized engagement over wellbeing in the social media era. We've seen this pattern before, and we know where it leads. These harms share a common thread: the erosion of what makes us human.
But a different future is possible — one where AI enhances rather than diminishes human life. Getting there demands a collective response to a defining question: what new norms, legal protections, and fundamental rights do we need to preserve what makes life meaningful?
The Five Deeply Human Pillars: A Closer Look
The pillars at the heart of this work — our relationships, cognition, inner worlds, identities, and contributions — are core to human life and are deeply interconnected: when one is threatened, the others are too.
Our Human Relationships
Human relationships make life rich and meaningful — providing connection, developing emotional intelligence, and the productive friction that helps us grow. But many of today's AI products are not designed to enhance our relationships; they're designed to replace them. From AI companions to AI therapists, tech companies increasingly market their products as superior substitutes for human connection. The consequences are already visible: deepening isolation, eroding empathy, and distorted expectations of intimacy. When frictionless, on-demand AI interaction becomes the norm, the skills and tolerance required for real human connection quietly atrophy — with consequences that extend far beyond the individual.
The Five Deeply Human Pillars: A Closer Look
The pillars at the heart of this work — our relationships, cognition, inner worlds, identities, and contributions — are core to human life and are deeply interconnected: when one is threatened, the others are too.
Select Pillar
Our Human Relationships
Human relationships make life rich and meaningful — providing connection, developing emotional intelligence, and the productive friction that helps us grow. But many of today's AI products are not designed to enhance our relationships; they're designed to replace them. From AI companions to AI therapists, tech companies increasingly market their products as superior substitutes for human connection. The consequences are already visible: deepening isolation, eroding empathy, and distorted expectations of intimacy. When frictionless, on-demand AI interaction becomes the norm, the skills and tolerance required for real human connection quietly atrophy — with consequences that extend far beyond the individual.
The Work Ahead
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Better innovation & tech design
Demanding for innovation from tech companies that supports human dignity instead of undermining it
Updated rights & safeguards
Enshrining legal protections to preserve the most fundamental parts of human life
The questions raised by AI's rapid expansion are fundamentally human ones. This initiative is where we begin working through them.
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Email us to get involved in this work: uniquelyhuman@humanetech.com
