What constitutes human flourishing? How does technology affect human flourishing? How can we research the design of human-centered AI systems?

Topic: Technology & Flourishing

Guest speaker: Prof. Karrie Karahalios

10:00 am - 10:30 am  Reading discussion 

10:30 am - 11:30 am  Guest Speaker 

11:30 am - 12:00 pm  Activity: Discussion about Human Flourishing!

❓Questions to think about:

• What does human flourishing mean? 

• How do tools/technologies impact human flourishing? E.g., digital technologies and social media? 

• How may AI impact human flourishing positively or negatively (now, and in the future)?

• How can we research flourishing with AI? 

• What can researchers do to provide insights into how to design AI interaction for human flourishing?

How can AI interaction enhance critical thinking skills and preserve human agency by promoting the search for truth and understanding, supporting healthy questioning, reasoning, and deeper conversations in an increasingly complex information landscape?

Guest speaker: Valdemar Danry

[Slide Link - Vald]

Here are the assignments for this week. Please finish them by midnight of Sept. 17th, the night before and upload in the course folder:

1. MIRO BOARD - If you are a for-credit student, please add yourself to [this Miro board] so your classmates can get to know you and your interests and you can start forming groups by end of September. In follow-on weeks, we will ask you to comment on other people's ideas for projects, etc.

2. READING & REFLECTION - For the reading and reflection, please pick (a) one news article from the following :

• Are We Really Willing to Become Dumber?

• They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.

• ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study

• and (b) pick one or two academic articles from:

• Understanding, Protecting, and Augmenting Human Cognition with Generative AI: A Synthesis of the CHI 2025 Tools for Thought Workshop: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21036

• The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers: https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3706598.3713778

• Human-AI Interaction for Augmented Reasoning: Improving Human Reflective and Critical Thinking with Artificial Intelligence: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3706599.3706719

• Don’t Just Tell Me, Ask Me: AI Systems that Intelligently Frame Explanations as Questions Improve Human Logical Discernment Accuracy over Causal AI explanations: https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3544548.3580672

• Wearable Reasoner: Towards Enhanced Human Rationality Through A Wearable Device With An Explainable AI Assistant: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3384657.3384799

3. DESIGN SKETCH EXERCISE - Try to envision an AI-based product (for reading, writing, news processing, or some decision-making task) that would encourage the user(s) to engage with the information and problem they are dealing with, think for themselves, think critically about the information, etc, while still benefiting from AI support. One example is the "Don't just tell me, ask me" system (one of the readings above) which first engages the person with a question to encourage them to think about some decision before offering the AI suggestion. You will see the link for submission on the "Design Sketches Page"!

How can AI support learning and self-development? How can AI-enabled personalization create learning experiences that adapt to individual interests and knowledge gaps and motivate deeper engagement by supporting each person's unique learning journey?

Guest speaker: Valdemar Danry, Pat Pataranutaporn
We will continue the topic of critical thinking and learning with the rest of Valdemar Danry's presentation, as well as a presentation by Pat. We will also go over the remaining design sketches, as well as a set of new ones.

[Slides Link- Vald] [Slides Link- Pat]

Here are the assignments for this week. Please finish them by midnight of Sept. 24th, the night before class, and upload in the course folder:

1. MIRO BOARD - Please use [this Miro board] to find your teammates! 

Please self-organize into groups of three after class on September 25. Groups must be finalized by October 2; students not in a group will be assigned randomly by the course staffs.  Please list themes or topics for projects you'd be interested in working on in the Miro board, and comment on one another's posts if you'd be interested in exploring collaboration!

2. READING & REFLECTION - For this reading and reflection, pick some of the classic literature on what can help motivate students to learn, and which methods help and work in making learned knowledge stick.

• For example, Dewey, Bruner, Papert, Resnick, etc, and/or concepts such as scaffolding & zone of proximal development, personalization, active/situated learning, peer learning, spaced learning, etc. 

• Pick and critique one existing AI tutor, e.g., ChatGPT study mode, KhanMigo, or DuoLingo's AI, using one or more of these concepts. Does the system support them effectively, or not?

Please submit your reflection along with brief description of your design sketch in this folder

3. DESIGN SKETCH EXERCISE - Come up with a 2nd design sketch related to the topic of learning. Identify a target user and a skill/expertise they should internalize rather than outsource to AI. How would you design an AI system that supports them while still encouraging and using methods that make the student internalize the skill/knowledge? Please submit your work through the link on the "Design Sketches Page".

Note: 

•  Going forward, design sketches will only be required from for-credit students. Listeners are encouraged to continue completing the weekly readings and reflections. Presentations will be timed at one minute, so please rehearse to ensure you fit within the limit.

How can AI support learning and self-development? How can AI-enabled personalization create learning experiences that adapt to individual interests and knowledge gaps and motivate deeper engagement by supporting each person's unique learning journey?

Guest speaker:  Auren Liu, Cathy Fang, and Pat Pataranutaporn
Next week will be focused on companionship from AI and the social/emotional impact of relationships with AI that are very personal. Auren Liu, Cathy Fang, and Pat Pataranutaporn will talk about the Media Lab's work in the area.

[Slide Link - Auren & Cathy] [Slide Link - Pat]

Here are the assignments for this week. Please finish them by midnight of Sept. 24th, the night before class, and upload in the course folder:

1. MIRO BOARD - Please use [this Miro board] to list ideas and connect with others.

Once you have formed a group, please encircle your team members in the Miro board to make it clear you are a group.

If some of you have not yet formed a team by Oct 2nd, then you can have a minute in class to pitch an idea to others that may still be searching.

2. READING & REFLECTION - Read some of the press articles on AI companionship, AI boyfriend/girlfriends, AI friends, etc. Many mainstream publications have written about it, including Wall Street Journal, Wired, New York Times, Technology Review, etc. For example:

• Wired 3/7/25: Want to Live Longer, Healthier, and Happier? Then Cultivate Your Social Connections.
  Chronic loneliness can increase cortisol and inflammation and weaken your immune system, says social scientist Kasley Killam. She argues it’s time to accept that good quality social connections are a fundamental human need.

Also read at least one academic paper on the topic, e.g.:

• • AI Companions Reduce Loneliness

  • Chatbots and mental health: Insights into the safety of generative AI

  • One is the loneliest number … Two can be as bad as one. The influence of AI Friendship Apps on users’ well-being and addiction

  • User Experiences of Social Support From Companion Chatbots in Everyday Contexts: Thematic Analysis
    
    

Write a personal reflection on the topic after reading some of the news and the academic paper (connect to the issues discussed in the paper). What is your point of view on the issue? What issues and questions does this phenomenon bring up for you? What are some interesting issues to bring up in class? Please submit your reflection along with a brief description of your design sketch in this [weekly reflection folder]

3. DESIGN SKETCH EXERCISE - Come up with a design sketch or idea for an AI-enabled system or chatbot that supports a certain type of social relationship(s) and/or social networks? Please submit your work through the link on the "Design Sketches Page".

How can AI support human creativity? Can AI-enabled tools for images, music, video, and other creative artifacts truly expand our creative potential? Or do their limitations risk narrowing originality? What is the balance between human vision and machine assistance—and can these tools help us create genuine masterpieces? What are their positive and negative impacts on the pursuit of creativity?

Guest speaker:  Dr. Ziv Epstein 

We will have our guest speaker for 45 minutes, and the remainder of the session will be spent catching up on design sketch exercises from this and previous weeks.

Here are the assignments for this week. Please finish them by midnight of Oct. 8th, the night before class, and upload in the course folder:

1. REFLECTION – Pick an AI tool for creativity (this could be a general-purpose one or something more specific) and critique it. No readings this week. Please upload your reflection [here].

2. DESIGN EXERCISE – Imagine an AI tool for creativity that motivates and supports human creativity. What kind of system would it be? What creative process does it enhance? Please upload your design sketches [here].

3. TEAM PROJECT WORK – Use some of the coming week to meet with your team members to start shaping your project proposals, which are due two weeks from now.

Workshop session for developing proposals for AI systems that actively promote human flourishing. Teams articulate design principles, scientific insights behind the design, identify specific flourishing dimensions to address, and receive feedback on feasibility and measurement strategies. Teams submit detailed project plans and receive formative feedback from instructors and peers to refine their proposals.

How can AI support mental health and emotional well-being, for example, by providing more preventative and personalized health support, aiding with behavior change, monitoring health data, and anticipating problems?

How can human-AI interaction help people identify and pursue their unique values and long-term goals while creating opportunities for making meaningful contributions to society?

Student teams present interim results of their refined projects and receive feedback from peers and instructors.

How can AI impact societal health, including democracy, equity, resilience, stability, peace, and more?

Time for teams to refine projects, conduct user research, develop prototypes, and design evaluation studies. Each team meets with instructors individually. Groups prepare presentations that articulate their vision & theory of change and approach to measuring impact on human flourishing.

Student teams present their project, demonstrating how they address specific dimensions of human-AI interaction in their design or research. Includes critical reflection on trade-offs, limitations, and synthesis discussions about the future of human-centered AI design.

Student teams present their project, demonstrating how they address specific dimensions of human-AI interaction in their design or research. Includes critical reflection on trade-offs, limitations, and synthesis discussions about the future of human-centered AI design.

Establishes the philosophical, psychological & scientific foundation for reimagining AI's role beyond efficiency metrics to consider meaning, well-being, and human values. Introduces frameworks for evaluating AI systems through the lens of human flourishing rather than performance optimization.

[Course Slide][Course Info & Expectations]

🚀 Assignments for Next week

Reading & reflection: Read the required readings, come prepared to discuss what human flourishing means, how tools & technology affect human flourishing, and how you think AI affects/will affect it in positive and negative ways?

Pick one reading on Human Flourishing from:

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02213-6

• https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1702996114

Pick 1-2 readings/videos on human-centered technology from: 

• Center for Humane Technology website: https://www.humanetech.com/course

• Cosmos Institute - turning to philosophy: https://blog.cosmos-institute.org/p/the-philosopher-builder

• Prepare some notes about the assigned questions to bring up in class