Welcome to Noēsis Collaborative
Noēsis Collaborative is a new nonprofit organization building a collaborative ecosystem of leaders who research, build, and govern technologies that advance human flourishing.
We serve leaders across multiple sectors through the following paths of collective action:
Equipping trusted voices in society to guide wise technology adoption
Creating resources for builders to innovate for flourishing
Translating flourishing research insights into practical policies
Builders Panel - HumanConnection.AI Salon in San Francisco 2024
Workshop Graphics - HumanConnections.AI Salon 2024
Everyone involved with Noēsis Collaborative believes that AI technology will have a profound impact on the world, touching every aspect of human life. The choices that guide the creation and use of AI technology can lead toward flourishing or languishing.
The seeds of Noēsis Collaborative were planted in 2024 when Ron Ivey, our Founder and CEO, began work on a pilot project for HumanConnections.AI along with colleagues at Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program and in partnership with Preston-Werner Ventures. The vision was to bring together researchers and academics with technologists to explore how we might design AI systems for social connection and human flourishing.
In October 2024, these friends co-hosted the first HumanConnections.AI Salon in the heart of San Francisco.
One of the defining moments of that event was the dialogue between Replika CEO Eugenia Kuyda and MIT researcher Sherry Turkle. While they are typically on opposite sides of the AI and human connections debates, they both agreed that the highest priority was to protect kids from using AI companions.
Soon after, Ron and Jonathan Teubner began work on the white paper, “Social AI and Human Connections: Benefits, Risks and Social Impact” (published in Spring 2025).
This led to us hosting several listening sessions with researchers, technologists, and investors with the USC Neely Center for Ethical Leadership which resulted in practical recommendations for product. “Designing AI to Help Kids Flourish” was presented to the Global Solutions Initiative Summit, an advisory body to the G20.
These principles have been adapted into both internal product policy and now a potential pubic policy released as the GUARD Act in the United States Senate.
We are grateful for the generous support of our sponsors: the Omidyar Network, Einhorn Collaborative, and the Lumina Foundation. The vision for Noēsis Collaborative was inspired by the desire to amplify the best work of our collaborators and serve our growing ecosystem in a unique way. We will host a second HumanConnections.AI gathering in January 2026.
New AI technology has been developed and distributed with unprecedented velocity, so the landscape evolved rapidly and the field’s learning curve has been steep. The wisdom of many people has contributed to the theory of change we are seeking to employ in service of our partners:
Gen AI and Youth Policy Workshop - University of Cambridge 2025
Civil society, faith leaders, leaders of wisdom traditions have an incredible opportunity to empower families and communities to make wise choices about their technology use and adoption. Wise demand and adoption can help steer the technology towards human flourishing outcomes.
The amazing work of top academics and researchers in both the human flourishing and AI fields will benefit from a larger platform, forums to collaborate with technologists, and new sources of funding.
Technologists that want to design and deploy technology for human flourishing need insight, partners, and practical tools.
Philanthropists want to build connectivity, increase reach and impact of their grantees, and build a cohesive strategy to build out the field.
Some of the world’s best minds and top tech talents are working at the intersection of AI and human flourishing. Our mission is to serve them by linking them together and helping them find new sources of funding and investment. Noēsis Collaborative aims to be a powerful platform for the most promising scholarship and technological development, introduce new models of investment, inform smart and effective governance, and generate new funding streams for the fruitful collaboration.
