Artificial intelligence (AI) is often discussed as if its impact was mainly a technical issue: Is the model accurate? Is it fast? Is it cheaper than the old system? Can it scale?

Those are useful questions. They are not the whole story.

A tool can be efficient and still steer people in the wrong direction. It can save time while weakening judgment. It can increase output while shrinking empathy. It can help an institution make decisions faster while making those decisions narrower, colder, or less fair. That is why we need to expand the narrow return-on-investment focus that has driven the economic quest for centuries to embrace a return-on-values perspective. The ProSocial AI Index is a point of departure for making that happen in a hybrid world, where it is urgent to move from treasure that we measure to a measure that we (should) treasure. The Index gives us a way to ask a deeper question: not just whether an AI system works but also what it encourages in the people who build it, buy it, and use it.

In simple terms, the ProSocial AI Index is a dashboard that helps us see whether AI supports human flourishing or slowly undermines it, and whether it preserves or jeopardizes the planet.

8 Powerful Questions to Steer the Hybrid Future

The index, above, is anchored in a simple matrix: 4T × 4P

The four Ts ask how the system is built:

Tailored: Was it shaped for the real context?

Tailored: Was it shaped for the real context?

Trained: Was it developed on sound data and sound norms?

Trained: Was it developed on sound data and sound norms?

Tested: Was it checked in the real world before being scaled?

Tested: Was it checked in the real world before being scaled?

Targeted: Is it aimed at the right outcome?

Targeted: Is it aimed at the right outcome?

The four Ps ask what and who the system is........

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