AI in service of humanness
This stream carries a thesis, not a topic: AI can help build the conditions humanness needs to flourish. As intelligent systems take on more of the work we once defined ourselves by, an old question becomes practical for everyone: what is a human life for? I read that as an opening.
This stream asks how AI can support presence, connection, and communities deciding for themselves what matters. And it asks the question underneath: who gets to decide what these tools are for?
01. The Gatekeeper Becomes the Caregiver
Completed | Essay
Who Decides What Care Means
Somewhere today, an older adult is waiting to learn whether an algorithm decided they qualify for home care. A score turns their needs into a number. A model approves or denies. A device watches for outcomes no one asked them to define.
None of this began in bad faith. Scoring is fast, and care at scale is hard. But the people closest to the care, those receiving it and those giving it, have no way into the systems now deciding it.
The question I keep returning to: how do we build the way in?
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Who Decides What Care Means
Somewhere today, an older adult is waiting to learn whether an algorithm decided they qualify for home care. A score turns their needs into a number. A model approves or denies. A device watches for outcomes no one asked them to define.
None of this began in bad faith. Scoring is fast, and care at scale is hard. But the people closest to the care, those receiving it and those giving it, have no way into the systems now deciding it.
The question I keep returning to: how do we build the way in?
Read full paper