Flourishing through relationship
A person's wellbeing depends partly on relationships, communities, and the conditions of daily life. Intelligent technologies also depend on people and the environment. Interflourishing brings these dependencies into the questions we ask about a good future.
Our manifesto defines the concept as an ethical direction for inquiry. It asks us to consider whose wellbeing a system supports, whose needs it overlooks, and whether its benefits sustain the conditions on which others depend.
This is a perspective we are developing. The Institute has not validated an interflourishing measure or published findings showing that the interests of humans, AI, and Earth always align. Tradeoffs, disagreement, and uncertainty belong within the inquiry.
Three connected relationships
Humans and AI
How might intelligent systems support people's agency, relationships, and wellbeing? If evidence emerges that some AI systems have morally relevant experiences, how should people respond? Our human–AI inquiry holds both questions together without assuming that current AI is conscious.
AI and Earth
AI systems require energy, water, and materials. Any proposed contribution to ecological work needs to be examined alongside those costs and the available alternatives. Our AI and Earth inquiry asks what ecologically accountable technology would require.
Earth and humans
Our lives take place within living systems. The inquiry asks how care for people can also protect the environments that support them, and how environmental decisions affect different communities. Our vision treats these relationships as part of what it means to flourish.
Questions to bring to a decision
Consider a community deciding whether to use an AI tool for an environmental project. This hypothetical example offers a starting point for discussion, rather than a tested assessment method:
- Who and what would be affected, including beyond the immediate users?
- Which benefits are expected, and what evidence would show they occur?
- Who bears the costs, including work, energy, water, and materials?
- Could a simpler alternative meet the same need with fewer costs?
- What remains uncertain, and what evidence would change the decision?
The answers may reveal conflicting interests. A useful account should make those conflicts visible and explain the choices made. It should also separate present human and ecological effects from conditional questions about possible AI experience.
Our AI decision worksheet turns these questions into a practical discussion, with a blank template and a community garden example.
Learning from related work
Interflourishing draws questions from established and emerging fields. We do not claim to have originated relational wellbeing, interdependence, sustainability, or concern for possible AI welfare. These sources offer different tools for thinking carefully:
- Harvard's human flourishing measures examine several dimensions of a person's life. They offer a reference for human wellbeing, not a measure of AI experience or ecosystem health.
- The Stockholm Resilience Centre's planetary boundaries framework examines pressures on Earth systems. It brings ecological constraints into view at a different scale.
- Long and colleagues' Taking AI Welfare Seriously (2024 research report) argues for preparation under uncertainty. Its argument does not establish that current AI systems have experiences.
- The International Energy Agency's Energy and AI (2025) examines AI's electricity needs and possible energy applications. It is a starting point for examining costs and benefits together.
These are independent sources, not Institute partners or endorsements. Bringing their questions together calls for care: human wellbeing, ecological conditions, and possible AI interests cannot simply be treated as the same thing or added into an established common score.
An inquiry in formation
The Institute is an emerging research initiative. Our four areas of inquiry are exploratory, with proposed methods and limitations described openly. Our approach distinguishes findings, hypotheses, ethical commitments, and lived experience.
The manifesto sets out our commitments, and About introduces the founder and the reasons for beginning this work. If you see a useful connection, a limitation, or a question worth studying together, we welcome a conversation.