AI and Multi-scale Human Intelligence

AI and multi-scale human intelligence

Our use of AI is reshaping intelligence simultaneously at individual, organizational, and societal levels, exposing new fault lines across multiple scales. Yet, academia, industry, policy-makers, and civil society alike, are still searching for ways to systematically make sense of these AI impacts. What institutional designs could help AI to strengthen rather than replace individual human intelligence? What interaction modes may erode human expertise, and how can we safeguard public accountability, safety, and decision-making at an organizational level? What happens to political responsibility when decisions are distributed across human–AI systems? And at the deepest level, if intelligence is no longer a distinctively human endowment, what replaces it as the foundation of human dignity, moral standing, and self-governance?

By the end of the workshop, we hope to identify where new forms of oversight, institutional design, or redistribution of power may be required in order to protect individual and collective agency, including steps that the leaders in the room can take directly.

This will be a human-scale, conversational convening, curated for a rich discussion, drawing both established leaders and emerging thinkers across academia, industry, civil society and public policy. It expands on our 2025 event on Measuring AI in the World. Presentations will be briefer than at a typical conference, with time devoted primarily to discussion, and ample opportunity to connect with fellow attendees in SFI’s unique and beautiful setting. The goal is to spark new insights through the exploration of familiar concepts in unfamiliar comparative contexts.

This studio is supported, in part, under SFI's Emergent Political Economies grant provided by the Omidyar Network.