Artificiality Institute

The Artificiality Institute is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to studying what AI does to human cognition, identity, and meaning-making. Founded by Helen Edwards and Dave Edwards, the institute has spent a decade researching the human side of AI — focusing on questions about how AI changes minds, relationships, and professional judgment rather than what AI can do as a technology.

Mission

The Artificiality Institute exists to help people stay human in the age of AI. Where most AI research focuses on capabilities and benchmarks, the institute studies the behavioral and cognitive consequences of AI use. Their work introduces frameworks like cognitive sovereignty and the median pull that reframe AI adoption as a question of human flourishing, not just productivity.

Research Focus

• Cognitive sovereignty — How to remain the author of your own thinking when AI is in the loop
• Identity and AI — How AI use reshapes professional and personal identity
• Decision-making in the AI era — How AI changes the structure and quality of human decisions
• Human-AI coevolution — The long-term cultural and individual changes from living and working with AI

Key Publications

• Stay Human (2026, publishing weekly chapters) — by Helen and Dave Edwards
• Make Better Decisions — by Helen and Dave Edwards
• Artificiality Journal — Ongoing research and essays
• Stay Human podcast

Events

Artificiality Summit 2026 — October 22-24, 2026 in Bend, Oregon. Theme: "Unknowing." A gathering of neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, philosophers, designers, and enterprise leaders working on human-AI coevolution.

Episodes Featuring the Artificiality Institute

• S02E05 — Cognitive Sovereignty with Helen & Dave Edwards

Links

• Website
• Artificiality Journal
• About the Institute
• Stay Human Podcast