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Florea.AI

@forea-virtue.bsky.social
18 followers 34 following 475 posts

Virtue-aligned AI for well-being & human flourishing. Built through research in psychology, philosophy, and computer science. More about our work: florea.ai

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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 13h
"How emotional response styles of generative AI companions shape adaptive emotion regulation and short-term AI reliance" by Chun Wang, Frontiers in Psychology (2026) Two AI response styles eased people's distress about equally. Only one helped them cope better on their own afterward.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
With more than one billion people using ChatGPT each week, many turn to AI for help with stress, relationships, and difficult decisions. Yet most evaluations of AI in mental health have focused mainly on emergencies. openai.com/index/introd...
openai.com
Introducing MentalHealthBench
MentalHealthBench is an expert-informed benchmark for evaluating helpful and safe AI responses across realistic mental health conversations.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"Tailored to you: longitudinal effects of personalising language models" by Canfer Akbulut, Justine Breuch, Arianna Manzini, Lujain Ibrahim, Matija Franklin, Roma Patel, Iason Gabriel, Kristian Lum, and Laura Weidinger (Google DeepMind)
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Future You: A Conversation with an AI-Generated Future Self Reduces Anxiety, Negative Emotions,Increases Future Self-Continuity: Pat Pataranutaporn, Kavin Winson, Peggy Yin, Auttasak Lapapirojn, Pichayoot Ouppaphan, Monchai Lertsutthiwong, Pattie Maes, Hal E. Hershfield (MIT Media Lab et al.,2024)
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"Survey: Americans Concerned About AI's Effect on Human Connection and Thinking" by Olivia Sanchez (Inside Higher Ed). Elon University's new Human Purpose in Peril report captures a striking tension in how Americans relate to artificial intelligence.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
We talk about "aligning AI with human values" as if the hard part were the engineering. In "Artificial Intelligence, Values, and Alignment" (Minds and Machines, 2020), Iason Gabriel argues the hard part is deciding what those values are, and whose.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Calling all whiteboard animators! We'd love help creating a short explainer video about our work on AI and human flourishing. Interested, or know the perfect person? Get in touch 👇 florea.virtue.ai@gmail.com
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"High School Seniors Turn to AI for Support" by Joshua Bay (Inside Higher Ed, 2026) offers a glimpse at a shift in the students heading to campus next: they're arriving already used to turning to AI when they're struggling.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Some questions are too big for any single field. This past week we brought our researchers together, face to face in Toronto, to think them through and left with sharper ideas and real energy for the year ahead.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Could AI be shaping who we become, and who decides what it optimizes for?
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Most AI ethics asks how to prevent harm. A new paper by Maurice N. Emelu asks a deeper question: what kind of people is AI forming us into? His central concern, "opportunity cost," the capacity for judgment we lose when seamless AI displaces our own deliberation. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Formation-based AI ethics: ethical formation, responsibility, and opportunity cost in AI ecosystems - AI and Ethics
Recent efforts in AI ethics have been dominated by the proliferation of high-level principles intended to guide responsible development and deployment. Yet persistent implementation failures suggest…
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Could one short conversation with an AI quietly change how you see yourself? "AI-exhibited Personality Traits Can Shape Human Self-concept through Conversations" by Jingshu Li, Tianqi Song, Nattapat Boonprakong, Zicheng Zhu, Yitian Yang, and Yi-Chieh Lee (National University of Singapore, CHI 2026)
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
"Reputation-based reciprocity in human–bot and human–human networks" Ashley Harrell & Margaret L. Traeger, PNAS Nexus (2025) academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
academic.oup.com
Reputation-based reciprocity in human–bot and human–human networks
Abstract. People help those with a reputation for helping others; as a result, they are more likely to behave generously when reputational concerns are pre
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Stumbling Into AI Emotional Dependence: How Routine AI Interactions Reshape Human Connection, a new perspective paper by Yaoxi Shi, Cathy Mengying Fang, Pattie Maes, and Amit Goldenberg (Imperial College London, Harvard University, and MIT), arxiv.org/abs/2606.04150
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Reposted by Florea.AI
Frank Pasquale @frankpasquale.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Nice to see Acemoglu oppose TESCREAL: "Much of the AI boom has been driven by a homogeneous group of people influenced by a shared idea — drawn partly from philosophy and science fiction — that sees machines as ultimately surpassing and supplanting humanity." www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Why we must stop talking about artificial general intelligence — and instead build ‘pro-worker’ AI
Rather than racing to replace people, we should build AI tools that amplify human expertise and expand opportunity.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Promoting Kindness in Society: A Qualitative Study to Advance Well-Being, Equity, and Positive Social Change Ali Ebrahimian, Morteza Mansourian, Sheida Vahidi, and Fatemehsadat Alavi (Health Psychology Open, 2026) journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
AI Companions Reduce Loneliness Julian De Freitas, Zeliha Oğuz-Uğuralp, Ahmet Kaan Uğuralp, and Stefano Puntoni, Journal of Consumer Research (2026) academic.oup.com/jcr/article/...
academic.oup.com
AI Companions Reduce Loneliness
Abstract. Chatbots are now able to engage in sophisticated conversations with consumers in the domain of relationships, providing a potential coping soluti
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
How Does Turning to AI for Companionship Predict Loneliness and Vice Versa? Dunigan Folk and Elizabeth Dunn, Psychological Science (2026)
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Artificial Intelligence and the Psychology of Human Connection Ryan L. Boyd and David M. Markowitz, Perspectives on Psychological Science (2026) journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
"Illuminating the Black Box: A Psychometric Investigation into the Multifaceted Nature of Large Language Models" by Yang Lu, Jordan Yu, and Shou-Hsuan Stephen Huang (University of Houston) asks a deceptively simple question. Do AI language models have something like a personality?
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Looking into the AI Mirror with Professor Shannon Vallor Shannon Vallor, author of The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking and Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Can an AI learn to disagree well? "Learning to Negotiate: Multi-Agent Deliberation for Collective Value Alignment in LLMs," Panatchakorn Anantaprayoon, Nataliia Babina, Nima Asgharbeygi, and Jad Tarifi (Integral AI, with collaborators at The University of Tokyo and MATS) train a model
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
AI Has No Neighbors: Why Virtue Requires a Community Centered on Human Flourishing www.podpage.com/ethical-byte... An Aristotelian case: you can train a model into the behavioral signatures of honesty without what makes honesty coherent. Virtue forms in a community of mutual stakes.
podpage.com
AI Has No Neighbors: Why Virtue Requires a Community Centered on…
"Virtue is not completed in reflection; it is completed in life. The model never comes down the mountain; its entire existence is the conversation. There is no worl…
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The efficacy of incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots in brief gratitude and self-affirmation interventions: Evidence from two exploratory experiments Jing Wen Hung, Andree Hartanto, Adalia Y.H. Goh, Zoey K.Y. Eun, K.T.A. Sandeeshwara Kasturiratna, Zhi Xuan Lee and Nadyanna M. Majeed
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Chatbot or humanaut? How the source of advice impacts prosocial behavior J. Jobu Babin and Haritima S. Chauhan. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, March 2026 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Towards Open Benchmarks for Human Flourishing with AI: Report of the October '25 Workshop and Next Steps Advancing Humans with AI (AHA) Program, MIT Media Lab www.media.mit.edu/projects/rep...
media.mit.edu
Project Overview ‹ Report: Towards Open Benchmarks for Human Flourishing with AI – MIT Media Lab
New Report: Towards Open Benchmarks for Human Flourishing with AIMost AI benchmarks measure how smart models are—but not how they affect us. Do they deep…
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
A randomised controlled comparison of the effectiveness of human and AI chatbot coaching with goal attainment, wellbeing and self-efficacy Erik de Haan, Nicky Terblanche and Kenneth Nowack, Human Resource Development International, 2026 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Your AI Coach Has Great Reviews and No Results. David Rice, People Managing People, 29 July 2026. Worth a read. Rice puts two trials side by side to explain why the evidence on AI coaching looks contradictory.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Exploring a Behavioral Model of "Positive Friction" in Human-AI Interaction Zeya Chen and Ruth Schmidt, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology We have spent a decade designing friction out of technology. This paper argues that with AI, some of it needs to be designed back in.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
A preprint worth your time: Boosting metacognition in entangled human–AI interaction to navigate cognitive–behavioral drift, by Ezequiel Lopez-Lopez, Christoph Abels, Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Stephan Lewandowsky and Stefan Herzog.
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Reposted by Florea.AI
Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society @torontosri.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
If AI systems are increasingly being used for advice, support & guidance, how should they be designed to help people flourish? That's the question behind florea.ai, a project led by SRI's @karinavold.bsky.social and @ashtonanderson.bsky.social with @louistay.bsky.social. Learn more: uoft.me/cyw
uoft.me
SRI research leads ask whether AI can support human flourishing — Schwartz Reisman Institute
A three-year, US$3.6M project co-led by SRI Research Leads Karina Vold and Ashton Anderson with Purdue University’s Louis Tay explores how AI systems might be designed to support long-term human well-...
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Which "human values" should an AI system actually be aligned with? Dr. Iason Gabriel's "Artificial Intelligence, Values, and Alignment" (Minds and Machines, 2020) remains one of the clearest treatments of that question, and it is open access.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Artificial moral characters: Constitutional AI and the challenge of alignment - Jörg Noller (LMU Munich), AI and Ethics, 2026 Can an AI have moral character? This paper says no, not in the full sense, and then argues the more interesting question lies elsewhere.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Patients Are Bringing AI to Therapy — APA 2026 Chatbots and Mental Health Survey www.apa.org/pubs/reports...
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Frictionless Love: Associations Between AI Companion Roles and Behavioral Addiction - Vibhor Agarwal, Ke Zhou, Edyta Paulina Bogucka, and Daniele Quercia (Nokia Bell Labs), ACM FAccT 2026
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Reinforcement Learning Towards Broadly and Persistently Beneficial Models Akshay V. Jagadeesh, Rahul K. Arora, Khaled Saab, Ali Malik, Mikhail Trofimov, Foivos Tsimpourlas, Johannes Heidecke, Karan Singhal (OpenAI)
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
"Adults Lose Skills to AI. Children Never Build Them." by Timothy Cook, makes a distinction that most conversations about AI and cognition completely miss. When adults offload thinking to AI, they lose a capacity they already built. That is atrophy, and atrophy is recoverable.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
"How AI Is Reshaping Human Skills and Thinking: Can Regular AI Use in Work and Daily Life Impact Job Skills and Key Cognitive Abilities?" by Zara Abrams, published in the APA Monitor on Psychology, asks a question we should all be asking.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Excited to share a new tool for social scientists who want to study how people interact with AI without writing a single line of code. Part of the Florea AI initiative studying human flourishing, character and virtue, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and hosted by ExpiWell.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
"People Choose to Receive Human Empathy Despite Rating AI Empathy Higher" by Joshua D. Wenger, C. Daryl Cameron, and Michael Inzlicht, published in Communications Psychology in 2026, uncovers a striking and counterintuitive finding across four studies: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41620574/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
People choose to receive human empathy despite rating AI empathy higher - PubMed
Recent advances in AI have enabled large language models to produce expressions that seem empathetic to human users, raising scientific and ethical questions about how people perceive and choose…
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
We're heading to the University of Toronto for our second expert workshop on Aligning LLMs with Human Wellbeing! After a great first expert discussion, we're back with another expert group to dig deeper into how AI can genuinely support human flourishing.
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Florea.AI @forea-virtue.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Our principal investigator Dr. Karina Vold is organizing a conference on the Philosophy of AI and Science at the University of Toronto, September 25th and 26th, 2026.
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