Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Title: AI, Capability, and the ProsocialResponse
Description: AI, Capability, and the Prosocial Response
The dominant narrative about AI focuses on what it can do. This session asks a different question: what is AI doing to us — and what are we going to do about it?
Drawing on new research and on the paper Evolving Prosocial AI (Atkins & Wilson, 2026), this session argues that current AI development is systematically eroding three capacities that prosocial practice depends on: the ability to think independently, the ability to perceive your own reasoning, and the social bonds that make collective action possible. These aren't separate harms. They interact to create a trap that undermines its own resistance.
But the session doesn't stop at the diagnosis. The worldviews driving extractive AI development are cultural replicators — and so are the alternatives. The Core Design Principles and psychological flexibility frameworks turn out to be exactly the tools needed to think clearly about this problem and respond to it.
You already have the antidote. This session is about recognising it.
Bio: Paul Atkins is co-founder of ProSocial World and author of a forthcoming book on prosocial AI under review with Cambridge University Press. He teaches leadership in the Australia and New Zealand School of Government and has trained over 3,500 facilitators globally in applying evolutionary science and contextual behavioural science to strengthen cooperation in groups and organizations. His current work explores how AI systems can enhance rather than erode perspective-taking, psychological flexibility, and collective wisdom. Paul is particularly interested in how worldviews shape technology development and what it means to build AI that supports human autonomy and relatedness rather than replacing human judgement.
Title: AI, Capability, and the ProsocialResponse
Description: AI, Capability, and the Prosocial Response
The dominant narrative about AI focuses on what it can do. This session asks a different question: what is AI doing to us — and what are we going to do about it?
Drawing on new research and on the paper Evolving Prosocial AI (Atkins & Wilson, 2026), this session argues that current AI development is systematically eroding three capacities that prosocial practice depends on: the ability to think independently, the ability to perceive your own reasoning, and the social bonds that make collective action possible. These aren't separate harms. They interact to create a trap that undermines its own resistance.
But the session doesn't stop at the diagnosis. The worldviews driving extractive AI development are cultural replicators — and so are the alternatives. The Core Design Principles and psychological flexibility frameworks turn out to be exactly the tools needed to think clearly about this problem and respond to it.
You already have the antidote. This session is about recognising it.
Bio: Paul Atkins is co-founder of ProSocial World and author of a forthcoming book on prosocial AI under review with Cambridge University Press. He teaches leadership in the Australia and New Zealand School of Government and has trained over 3,500 facilitators globally in applying evolutionary science and contextual behavioural science to strengthen cooperation in groups and organizations. His current work explores how AI systems can enhance rather than erode perspective-taking, psychological flexibility, and collective wisdom. Paul is particularly interested in how worldviews shape technology development and what it means to build AI that supports human autonomy and relatedness rather than replacing human judgement.
