Wise AI

How should we approach the development of AI wisely, and what do wisdom traditions, especially Buddhism, offer?

Working drafts by Rufus Pollock, October 2026: a question tree, four essays that answer it, and three short briefs. Everything here is draft and AI-assisted, with sources linked throughout.

Start here

• AI from the perspective of Plum Village practice (about 1,400 words). What the practice sees in AI, organised by teaching: interbeing, habit energy and stopping, watering seeds, the mindfulness trainings, non-attachment to views, sangha.
• The state of AI, October 2026: a one-page factual brief.
• Efforts to make AI wise and good: a one-page brief on who is trying what.

The four essays

Each essay opens with a one-page summary, and its headings state the argument, so the contents list alone gives the answer.

1. Can we make AI good? Alignment and what wisdom traditions offer. Partly, and not yet in a way anyone can check.
2. Risk and pace: given the risks, how should we approach AI development? Go at the speed of wisdom: slow the frontier, speed up safety.
3. How AI changes how we live: everyday life, setting catastrophe aside. AI's deepest everyday effect is on our capacity to choose well.
4. Could AI be conscious? We may never know, so relate to AI with humility, low-cost care and clear honesty.

Behind the essays

• The question tree: the governing question and the four question trees the essays answer.
• Answers files with each tree's hypotheses and sourced answers: Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4.