The architecture of how AI meets human life is being set right now.
Mostly by default. It does not have to be that way.
humanaligned.org is a public-good initiative. We hold a frame for what AI should serve: three shared aims, named in the open, that any region or community can point at and build toward. We start in the San Francisco Bay Area.
We have a design problem.
AI is becoming the infrastructure of how people learn, work, govern, and belong. The decisions about what it is for are being made now, quietly, by whoever builds fastest, and mostly for engagement and revenue. Almost no one is asking the question that matters: to what end?
What becomes normal in the next two or three years will shape life for decades. Defaults harden, and the people who come after us will live inside the ones we set. The window to aim AI on purpose is open now, and it is narrow.
So we treat it as a design problem, which means it can be shaped. No one is coming to do that for us. We have started. We do not fight AI and we do not surrender to it. We aim it at what people need.
This is stewardship, in the plain sense of the word. You look after something for people you will never meet, because they will live inside what we set in motion now. That is the work.
Three shared aims.
Every region wants its people thriving, connected, and able to trust what touches their lives. We name these as what AI should be aimed at, and we are building the language and the measure that let a region pursue them in the open.
- Flourishing
People living well across the dimensions that make a life a life. We have built an open way to see whether the AI transition is moving that, region by region.
- Belonging
People part of something, held by community and by each other. This is the dimension AI most threatens and most needs to serve. We are building the practices that let it deepen connection rather than thin it.
- Trust
People able to meet AI without being used. It is the floor the other two stand on. We are building the signals that let trust be earned in the open.
An open way to measure.
A frame only helps if a region can measure whether life is getting better. We have built an open, shared way to measure flourishing across eight dimensions, from mental and emotional health to financial stability, purpose, and community, offered as a public good the whole field can use. It lives at thrivability.ai, open to examine, adopt, and build on. We are proving it where people live, and we will publish what we learn as the evidence grows.
Connecting the camps.
The field is already here, working in separate rooms. Flourishing and wellbeing. Trust and safety. Belonging and connection. Measurement off in its own corner. Real work, largely not talking to each other. Holding the frame means connecting them: surfacing what works, giving the field a shared language, turning scattered signal into something a region can act on.
Design locally, scale globally.
The work happens where people live. We start in San Francisco and the Bay Area, and reach across California and the West Coast. Each step is a real local build that earns its credibility before the next begins.
This is the heart of it. We design locally toward what works, measure it in the open, and show what is serving people so other communities, cities, and regions can take it up. Human needs are the same everywhere, and the technology already crosses every language, so what works in one place does not stay in one place. What works here is not a local answer. It is a human one that started here.
This is one way forward. We do not claim it is the only one. The path is narrow, and we will need many. But this is a way we can start now, in the open, with people who would rather shape what is coming than inherit it.
How to be part of this.
The first step is a conversation. We are inviting the people and institutions who want to help.
- The Founding Circle
For those who would rather shape the defaults than inherit them. You come in at the beginning and become a founding steward of the work.
- Foundations
Partners on the public-good infrastructure: the frame, the field synthesis, the convening.
- Civic leaders and institutions
Help convene the table and claim the frame for the region.
I have known Cory for years and respect his heartfelt work. With Human Aligned he will continue his work, supporting technology to deepen our ability to live with compassion and awareness and care for ourselves and the Earth. I am cheering him on.
Close.
No one is coming to set these defaults for us. That is not cause for despair. It is the reason to start. We are doing the design, toward flourishing, belonging, and trust. This is a moment to get right, and to get right quickly, before it hardens. It is one way forward. Come help us steward this moment, for the generations who will inherit what we choose now.