The AI race, with all its merits, can also be seen as one against the human race.
2025 is the year that promises virtual replacement mini-humans called ”agents”. The name was probably invented by socially awkward tech bros with delusions of grandeur after watching the Matrix for the umpteenth time. You cannot help seeing a bit of Agent Smith despise of humanity in the promise that AI "staffers" will soon be present in every office, increasing efficiency by displacing or at least putting up roadblocks for the new generations of hires.
Past progress leaps have led to societal reconfiguration, as this one will inevitably also do. And each leap has had its casualties. When physical jobs became mostly obsolete by way of automation, humans moved more towards knowledge-based work; and horses became glue.
Now that AI is en route to replace a good part of menial desk jobs, where exactly will humans end up is anyone's guess. And what will happen to the EU citizens who will be the casualties of this replacement?
So far, the EU has responded to these unknowns by trying to legislate possible risks of the emergent AI technology via its EU Act, trying to get the private sector to play nicely via the EU Pact and invest money in AI factories, which will help the EU tech field develop. While these items are necessary to keep up the pace, I want to argue that the EU has the capacity to do much more than that.
We need a framework that doesn't just protect humans from digital Agent Smiths but actively promotes what makes life worth living. For this, we can look to concepts far older than The Matrix, yet remarkably suited to our present moment.
As a continent, we should aim to reach a state of EUdAImonia.
EUdAImonia combines (EU) policy with both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the ancient Greek concept of eudaimonia. It represents a uniquely European approach to AI that actively promotes human flourishing rather than merely managing risks.
The ancient Greeks gave us the lowered-case concept of "eudaimonia", or Happiness++. For Aristotle, it meant human flourishing in its fullest sense; the good life achieved through virtue, excellence, and the complete development of your potential. Not mere pleasure or satisfaction but a state of being where humans reason, improve themselves by developing virtues, and engage within their community. Eudaimonia requires both internal goods (character, wisdom) and external goods (resources, relationships) to achieve true flourishing.
How do we go from eudaimonia to EUdAImonia?
The EU AI Act establishes guardrails against harm, but it lacks a positive vision for how AI should actively promote human flourishing. European values of human dignity, solidarity, and democracy already align with eudaimonic principles.
What's missing is a regulatory framework that moves beyond risk management toward actively fostering technologies that enhance what makes us distinctly human.
Three critical domains where EUdAImonia could transform our approach:
1) AI brings a new wave of automation, thus freeing people from a lot of routine knowledge work. How do we ensure this creates space that can be filled by innate human creativity instead of simply reducing human employees? What guardrails are needed to avoid a crisis on the job market?
2) Educational AI can adapt to individual learning styles, helping people develop their unique talents and capacities. How do we use it to enhance teachers capabilities as well as self-guided, life-long learning and better instruct the humans of tomorrow?
3) Current social media algorithms use AI to foster addiction and isolation. Malicious content producers use AI to promote anti-EU narratives. How do we instead strengthen community bonds and foster genuine connection?
The capabilities for an AI revolution will soon be here and it might not be pretty. We need a distinctly European vision that guides AI development toward eudaimonic ends rather than merely preventing the worst outcomes. We must embed the classical ideal of human flourishing into modern AI governance.
Success must be measured not by number of tokens per second, checked boxes on an EIC grant application or profit in the marketplace, but by how we contribute to the full development of human potential.
In short, we need EUdAImonia.
