Don’t Lose That Human Touch
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwerner/2026/06/17/dont-lose-that-human-touch/
Publish Date: 2026-06-17 20:11:00
Source Domain: www.forbes.com
Humans shake hands with AI to show partnership. Machine learning to enable and work together to achieve greater innovation and success.
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What’s important in integrating artificial intelligence into our lives?
Ask 100 people (like I have) and you’ll see some commonalities pop up. One is to not take it too fast, to go slow, and be cautious, when leveraging these very powerful technologies. But another one is to keep AI “human-centric” or “human-centered,” to keep celebrating the strengths of humanity as we see our first real competitor rise to prominence.
So what is human-centered AI?
I wanted to bring you this definition from Stanford, where the newly-merged AI lab is working to advance just these kinds of principles:
“Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) is an approach to AI that prioritizes human needs, values, and well-being throughout the development and deployment of AI systems. HAI prioritizes collaboration between humans and machines, ensuring that technology is developed with empathy, ethics, and user experience in mind. HAI integrates insights from fields like computer science, psychology, ethics, and design to build systems that are trustworthy, inclusive, and aligned with societal goals.”
So, in other words, human-centric AI is about making things good for humans, keeping human goals in the center of focus, or, top of mind. Or, in a sense, helping humans to flourish.
Thoughts from Boston
To that end, let’s go to a panel that I saw at the Imagination in Action event (this is an event I am involved in hosting) at MIT here in Boston, in April. Award-winning journalist Nina Gregory interviewed Keyun Ruan, Co-Director of the AI and Flourishing Program at Harvard University, and Tim White of NuVert. They talked about how it is that humans can flourish alongside AI.
And they started with some definitions.
“I think that human-centered approaches are really just building upon frameworks of humanity and considering frameworks of humanity as…
