In times of revolutionary technological change such as our own, it is challenging to preserve and extol what is distinctly human. This is especially the case when the technological change is state-sponsored, as AI is becoming under the Trump Administration. In his recent executive order, President Trump stated that his administration seeks “to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.”2 We praise the Trump Administration for foregrounding human flourishing as a primary policy objective in its quest for AI superiority and for seeking to direct federal efforts to promote its advancement.
Though promoting human flourishing is first on the list of priorities for how to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance, much of the deepest thinking around AI has focused on the administration’s latter two policy goals, i.e., economic competitiveness and national security. While these three goals are fundamentally interrelated, human flourishing cannot be simply reduced to economic and military dominance.
Our comment seeks to offer guidance regarding the administration’s first AI policy goal: the promotion of human flourishing. As we and others have outlined in “A Future for the Family: A New Technology Agenda for the Right,” a statement that has garnered the support of dozens of eminent conservative leaders alongside prominent technologists, human flourishing depends on a culture of thriving families.3 The family begets human children, and it is unmatched in its natural ability to raise them to be healthy and productive. In other words, there can be no policy to promote human flourishing that does not have the objective of empowering and advancing the well-being of families. Conversely, any technological program that undermines the family is opposed to human flourishing. We echo Vice President Vance’s hope that AI can “make people more productive, more prosperous, and more free,” as he put it in his February 11, 2025, speech at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, France. But as the president’s executive order underscores, ensuring that human flourishing is advanced in the era of AI will require the government to make deliberate policy choices.
We recommend the following five policy actions: 1) establish the President’s Council on Technology and the Family; 2) require family impact and opportunity assessments; 3) incorporate a family-focused strategy and personnel in AI research and development; 4) balance automation with investments in job recovery and skill development; and 5) protect minors from AI-related harms.
