This Started as a Family Conversation
In 2015, our kids asked us what they should study if AI was going to do everything. We didn't have an answer. That bothered us more than we expected.
So we spent a decade looking for one. We interviewed hundreds of people about their experiences with AI. We kept asking the question no one else seemed to be asking—not "Will AI take our jobs?" but "What is AI doing to us?" To how we reason. What we trust. What still feels like ours.
What we found: almost everyone senses the shift, but no one has language for it. Ideas come easier but feel thinner. Skills slip away without anyone noticing. The boundary between your thinking and the machine's gets harder to find.
The Artificiality Institute exists because we believe you can become more human through AI, not less—but only if you navigate the transformation consciously.
In 2015, our kids asked us what they should study if AI was going to do everything. We didn't have an answer. That bothered us more than we expected.
So we spent a decade looking for one. We interviewed hundreds of people about their experiences with AI. We kept asking the question no one else seemed to be asking—not "Will AI take our jobs?" but "What is AI doing to us?" To how we reason. What we trust. What still feels like ours.
What we found: almost everyone senses the shift, but no one has language for it. Ideas come easier but feel thinner. Skills slip away without anyone noticing. The boundary between your thinking and the machine's gets harder to find.
The Artificiality Institute exists because we believe you can become more human through AI, not less—but only if you navigate the transformation consciously.
The Artificiality Institute
The Artificiality Institute is a nonprofit research organization studying the human experience of AI—how it changes the way we think, who we become, and what it means to be human. We believe AI shouldn't just be safe or efficient. It should be worth it. Through story-based research, education, and community, we help people author what they're becoming in the space between human and machine—so they remain the authors of their own minds.
Helen & Dave Edwards
The Artificiality Institute Co-Founders
Helen Edwards
Founder
Helen Edwards
Founder
Helen Edwards
Founder
Dave Edwards
Founder
Dave Edwards
Founder
Dave Edwards
Founder
We come at this from different directions. Helen spent her career leading large-scale technology transformations—as CIO of New Zealand's national grid, in executive roles at PG&E and Fonterra, navigating what happens when complex systems meet human needs. Dave shaped creative software at Apple and invested in emerging technologies as a venture capitalist at CRV and analyst at Morgan Stanley.
What we share: a conviction that the most important questions about AI aren't technical. They're human.
We've been studying the human experience of AI for over a decade—first through Intelligentsia.ai, the research firm we founded (later acquired by Atlantic Media), now through the Artificiality Institute and as Visiting Researchers at UC Berkeley's Center for Human-Compatible AI. Helen also serves as a Commissioner on Oregon's Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
But titles don't capture why we do this. We started because our kids asked a question we couldn't answer. We kept going because we realized almost no one was asking it.
We come at this from different directions. Helen spent her career leading large-scale technology transformations—as CIO of New Zealand's national grid, in executive roles at PG&E and Fonterra, navigating what happens when complex systems meet human needs. Dave shaped creative software at Apple and invested in emerging technologies as a venture capitalist at CRV and analyst at Morgan Stanley.
What we share: a conviction that the most important questions about AI aren't technical. They're human.
We've been studying the human experience of AI for over a decade—first through Intelligentsia.ai, the research firm we founded (later acquired by Atlantic Media), now through the Artificiality Institute and as Visiting Researchers at UC Berkeley's Center for Human-Compatible AI. Helen also serves as a Commissioner on Oregon's Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
But titles don't capture why we do this. We started because our kids asked a question we couldn't answer. We kept going because we realized almost no one was asking it.
Advisors
We're guided by researchers, designers, and practitioners who share our conviction that AI's most important questions are human ones.
Abigail Snodgrass
Found Brand Lab
Abigail Snodgrass
Found Brand Lab
Abigail Snodgrass
Found Brand Lab
Barbara Tversky
Stanford | Columbia
Barbara Tversky
Stanford | Columbia
Barbara Tversky
Stanford | Columbia
Don Norman
Don Norman Design Award
Don Norman
Don Norman Design Award
Don Norman
Don Norman Design Award
Jamer Hunt
Parsons School of Design
Jamer Hunt
Parsons School of Design
Jamer Hunt
Parsons School of Design
John Pasmore
Latimer.ai
John Pasmore
Latimer.ai
John Pasmore
Latimer.ai
Josh Lovejoy
Amazon
Josh Lovejoy
Amazon
Josh Lovejoy
Amazon
Peter Spear
Spear Strategy
Peter Spear
Spear Strategy
Peter Spear
Spear Strategy
Peter Spear
Spear Strategy
Steven Sloman
Brown University
Steven Sloman
Brown University
Steven Sloman
Brown University
Steven Sloman
Brown University