AI & Human Connection

How can AI support informed and connected communities?

AI has fundamentally transformed how people understand each other, their communities, and the world around them. Today, a teenager might turn to Character.AI for daily companionship while an elderly person relies on Alexa for news and guidance. These AI systems aren’t just tools—they’ve become trusted advisors, social companions, and primary information sources.

Partnership on AI is addressing these impacts through our newest program, AI and Human Connection. This program builds upon our established leadership in AI and Media Integrity, exemplified by our Synthetic Media Framework and associated case studies. Our diverse network of technology companies, civil society organizations, academic institutions, media outlets, and policymakers is working together to ensure AI systems strengthen communities. By bridging disciplines, developing actionable guidance, and driving real-world adoption from practitioners to policymakers, PAI ensures AI development serves humanity’s need for both accurate information and genuine connection.

Expected Outputs

PAI’s AI and Human Connection program will deliver a comprehensive framework, modeled after our widely adopted Synthetic Media Framework, to guide the responsible design of interactive AI systems. This framework will emerge from a cross-sector workshop, bringing together diverse voices to establish unified standards that strengthen human relationships and knowledge. It will be paired with a roadmap that synthesizes existing research, identifies critical gaps, and sets clear directions for progress.

Designed for real-world implementation, the framework will support widespread stakeholder adoption, integration into public policy, and new industry standards that prioritize authentic human connection and knowledge. Through this systematic approach, PAI will shape how AI systems are designed and deployed to serve human flourishing

Program History

Since 2018, Partnership on AI has been at the forefront of addressing AI’s impact on information integrity and social trust. We began examining the impact of synthetic media and deepfakes before they became widespread through collaborations with the BBC, Meta, OpenAI, and others to prepare for AI’s transformation of our information ecosystem.

Years of convening diverse stakeholders led to the Synthetic Media Framework—a set of practical recommendations now adopted by 18 diverse institutions, from Bumble to TikTok, and cited by policymakers and advocates worldwide.

As AI systems become increasingly interactive and central to both social connection and knowledge acquisition, we’ve launched AI and Human Connection to address this next frontier.
This program builds on almost a decade of success in creating actionable guidance that moves from collaborative development to industry adoption to policy implementation. It also extends our 2019 work on human–AI interaction, which produced one of the earliest frameworks and case studies on collaboration between people and AI systems.

Just as we anticipated the challenges of synthetic media in 2018 and chatbots in 2019, we’re now preparing for an era where AI is more capable and interactive, therefore requiring oversight and attention from our diverse partner community to support people around the world.