Join us for a Department Colloquium with Dr. Louis Tay (Purdue University)!
Title: AI for Human Flourishing
Abstract: Beyond avoiding harm, I propose an agenda for aligning AI with human flourishing, spanning how people feel (subjective well-being), how they function (psychological well-being), how they act toward others (character), and how varied and engaging their experiences are (psychological richness). A fundamental challenge for flourishing-centered AI is specifying measurable objectives that go beyond immediate human preferences. I show why psychology and psychometrics are needed by highlighting key issues from my research: the bipolarity of affect, cross-cultural invariance of well-being, and challenges of positive trait measurement. Each reveals a distinct challenge for an AI system seeking to optimize a single outcome. I conclude with open issues: navigating multiple outcomes that may not be jointly optimizable across temporal scope (immediate vs. long-term) and social scope (individual vs. community), and measurement bias in AI systems themselves.
Bio: Louis Tay is the William C. Byham Professor of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University and a leading scholar in industrial-organizational psychology, well-being research, and quantitative methodology. His research integrates psychological measurement, data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to better understand human flourishing, workplace effectiveness, and societal well-being. Dr. Tay’s work has been published in many of the discipline’s premier journals, including American Psychologist, Nature Human Behavior, Nature Communications, Psychological Bulletin, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Organizational Research Methods. His work continues to shape research and practice at the intersection of well-being, measurement, and emerging methodological technologies.
