Christos Makridis (Stanford U) et al. have posted “Flourishing-by-Design: A Framework for Embedding Well-Being in AI-Driven Innovation” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Big Tech firms face mounting criticism for practices that undermine social welfare, ranging from monopolistic consolidation and attention-maximizing design to the erosion of mental health and civic trust. At the same time, corporate responsibility frameworks such as ESG remain ill-suited to assess the broader societal impacts of digital technologies, particularly due to inconsistent measurement and limited focus on actual outcomes. We propose a new paradigm-flourishing by design-that reorients corporate responsibility around the active promotion of human flourishing through AI-enabled services and platforms. Drawing on empirical insights from the Global Flourishing Study, we argue for a shift from risk-minimization toward outcome-oriented, value-driven product design. The framework advances a set of principles and design criteria that integrate AI ethics (e.g., fairness, autonomy, transparency) with multi-dimensional flourishing indicators (e.g., health, meaning, social connection) into the specification and evaluation of digital products. This approach offers scholars, policymakers, and industry leaders a more comprehensive lens for assessing the ethical performance of all firms and complements existing ESG efforts by anchoring responsibility in the lived experiences and well-being of end users.