Is AI Our Gateway To Happiness?

Happiness is an elusive experience. Awareness of the aspects that matter to us, offline can help us ... [+] curate happiness in a hybrid world, for ourselves and others.
As we commemorate the International Day of Happiness 2025, we find ourselves at an intriguing crossroads. Artificial intelligence has begun to infuse ever more arenas of being and becoming human, permeating everything from work to relationships. This begs the question: in this age of accelerating technological advancement, is AI a potential pathway to greater human happiness, or is it taking us further away?
The pursuit of happiness has been a central theme of human existence since the dawn of civilization. Yet, happiness remains notoriously elusive, a fluid state in a world defined by constant change. Neither we as individuals nor the society we constitute are fixed, ever. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus observed, "No man ever steps in the same river twice," a metaphor for the ever-shifting nature of life and happiness. It's not an asset to be acquired but rather a dynamic process to be navigated.
Are You happy?
Throughout history, humanity has explored diverse avenues for lasting well-being — covering a spectrum of perspectives.
Hedonism, championed by figures like Aristippus, equated happiness with the maximization of pleasure and the minimization of pain. While intuitively appealing, this pursuit of sensory gratification often proves fleeting and can lead to what some call the "hedonic treadmill."
Eudaimonia, in contrast, pursued by Plato emphasized the fulfillment of one's inner potential and the pursuit of virtue. This concept, detailed in his Nicomachean Ethics, links happiness to living a meaningful life in accordance with reason.