Philosophical health for the masses: A human-in-the-loop framework for AI chatbots
Artificial intelligence cannot solve our existential problems on its own
Most AI applications used in mental health and self-improvement treat existential questions as technical problems to be solved. But what if they are not problems at all?
Luis de Miranda is a philosophical practitioner and associated researcher at the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics
What if our worries about purpose, values, or belonging are conversations we need to keep having and maybe even essential to our philosophical well-being?
Today’s social infrastructures rarely allow us to explore deeper human needs for authentic belonging and meaning-centred community. When our daily choices do not align with our deepest convictions, we feel fragmented and lose our sense of direction. And not everyone can afford one-on-one time with a philosophical practitioner.
In a recent publication in Topoi, Luis de Miranda, philosophical practitioner and associate researcher at the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics describes a human-in-the-loop framework for AI chatbots. The goal is to make meaningful conversations about philosophical health available to more people. Harnessing the potential of these AI chatbots to do so, but using it responsibly – by keeping a human in the loop.
“Human-chatbot relationships are becoming common. But chatbots alone can’t nurture our philosophical health –the core of our humanity – at least not without proper guidance,” says Luis de Miranda.
What Luis de Miranda proposes is the application of his C.I.P.H.E.R. model for philosophical conversations (Crealectic Intelligence and Philosophical Health for Eudynamic Realities), which has already proven useful in human-to-human interactions, as a framework for AI chatbots – to preserve human agency while leveraging AI’s pattern recognition abilities to support philosophical reflection.
“A chatbot cannot replace human wisdom, but it can extend the reach of meaningful conversation while keeping human agency at the core. If done responsibly, AI could help bring philosophical reflection into people’s everyday life, giving more people a chance to talk about what it means to live well and meaningfully,” Luis de Miranda concludes.
By Anna Holm Bodin
de Miranda, L. AI Companions for Philosophical Health: a Human-in-the-Loop Framework. Topoi (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s11245-025-10245-w
de Miranda, L. (2025). Tetractys of philosophical health: A structured approach to aligning personal cosmology, higher purpose, and practices of the compossible. Possibility Studies & Society, 0(0). DOI: 10.1177/27538699251360167