Tyler J. VanderWeele (Harvard University; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) & Jonathan Teubner (Harvard University – Institute for Quantitative Social Science) have posted Flourishing Considerations for AI on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
We put forward principled considerations concerning flourishing and AI that are oriented towards ensuring AI technologies are conducive to human flourishing, rather than impeding it. The considerations are intended to help guide discussions around the development of, and engagement with, AI technologies so as to orient them towards the promotion of individual and societal flourishing. Five sets of considerations around flourishing and AI are put forward concerning: (i) the output provided by large language models; (ii) the specific AI product design; (iii) our engagement with those products; and also the effects this is having on (iv) human knowledge; and on (v) the self-realization of the human person. While not exhaustive, we believe each of these considerations must be taken seriously if these technologies are to help promote, rather than impede, flourishing. We suggest that we should ultimately frame all of our thinking on AI technologies around flourishing.
Recommended.
The authors offer the following definition of flourishing:
Our working definition of flourishing is “the relative attainment of a state in which all
aspects of a person’s life are good, including the contexts in which that person lives”In prior work, we have operationalized the assessment of individual flourishing around six key domains of human life: happiness, health, meaning, character, relationships, and financial security. . . . The first five of these domains constitute important ends in their own right, and the sixth, financial security, is a critical means to help attain those ends.
For another take, see Virtue as the End of Law: An Aretaic Theory of Legislation.