Mind & Life XXXIX - Session 4 - Diversity & Ethics

The 39th Mind & Life Dialogue, held in Dharamsala in 2025 under the theme “Minds, AI, and Ethics,” brought together scientists, philosophers, contemplatives, and educators to explore how artificial intelligence reshapes our understanding of consciousness, intelligence, and compassion.

Session 4 focused on the topics of diversity and ethics: how can we cultivate ethical, inclusive, and environmentally conscious approaches to AI development and governance? More concretely, how artificial intelligence can uphold—or undermine—human dignity, social equity, and ecological responsibility.

Sasha Luccioni from Hugging Face opened by reframing sustainability beyond efficiency toward environmental, social, and economic integrity. She described AI’s hidden ecological costs—massive energy use, water for data-center cooling, and rare-earth mining—arguing that true sustainability requires confronting AI’s full lifecycle. She linked these material harms to social ones: rebound effects that intensify consumption and deepen digital inequality. Her call was for contextual, regenerative AI, rooted in stewardship and fairness rather than speed and scale.

Merve Hickok, policy expert with the Center for AI and Digital Policy, warned against predictive AI systems that constrain human potential by freezing people in past data patterns. Such systems, she explained, can perpetuate “cumulative disadvantage”—biases that cascade across healthcare, credit, housing, and employment. She advocated shifting from competition to collaboration, raising the ethical bar rather than racing for dominance, and embedding transparency, accountability, and public participation in AI governance.

Iason Gabriel from Google DeepMind examined how societies might “live well together” amid accelerating technological power. Drawing on Buddhist and secular ethics, he proposed three guiding steps: identify shared moral ground in human vulnerability and flourishing; enable democratic deliberation among those affected by AI; and cultivate a “veil-of-ignorance” or moral imagination that considers the welfare of all, including future generations. He stressed collective control and equitable distribution of AI’s benefits as ethical imperatives.

Geshe Thabkhe concluded with the Dalai Lama’s principle of secular ethics, uniting wisdom and compassion as the foundation of ethical technology. He suggested that AI systems and their creators alike can be infused with contemplative values through compassion training, diverse cultural data, and mindful design.