Guiding Principles on AI
On empathy, discernment, and our responsibility to shape the future of AI
By Nicholena Patel, Founder & CEO, 10/10 Research
Can AI feel?
I bet 97% of you would say no outright and the other 3% probably really enjoy science fiction and are invested in the possibilities.
There will likely come a day when artificial intelligence develops something resembling human consciousness, when we’ll have more interesting fish to fry, but for now, the tools we call AI can approximate human emotion remarkably well. They can recognize it, describe it, respond to it, and even produce things that evoke it, but the capacity to actually feel remains a distinctly human experience. That distinction, in my opinion, is the hinge on which our future relationship with AI swings.
As a sociologist, researcher, and someone building a business in the middle of this technological transformation, I spend a lot of time considering what our responsibility is in shaping that future. For me and my team, these conversations are happening constantly. We're experimenting with new tools, discovering capabilities, questioning our processes, and considering how our work will evolve. And the more we explore, the more convinced I become that our most important capability in the age of AI may be our capacity for discernment. I am convinced, though, that capacity for discernment is established and maintained, through our commitment to human empathy and meaning-making.
The human capacity to create meaning
Take childhood hunger as an example. AI could analyze thousands of interviews, identify patterns in food insecurity, uncover systemic contributors, and propose interventions. It might accomplish in minutes what would previously have taken researchers weeks. That's extraordinary.
But consider what happens when a person encounters those findings. We can imagine the experience of a child going hungry. We can recognize the fear, discomfort, uncertainty, and emotional consequences of that experience. Even if we've never experienced hunger ourselves, our capacity for empathy allows us to recognize the significance of another person's reality. That recognition gives meaning to the information. It influences what we care about, what questions we ask next, what possibilities we imagine, and what we ultimately choose to do.
An AI system might propose a remarkably effective intervention. It might even introduce a possibility that no human researcher had previously considered. And that could be genuinely inspiring. But the human beings engaging with that possibility bring something essential to the process: the ability to recognize its meaning in the context of people's lived experiences, to evaluate its potential, and to take responsibility for the consequences of pursuing it.
Information becomes powerful when it inspires us to understand one another and imagine what we might do to improve our lives. That's the human experience at the heart of AI-powered research.
Holding the torch of discernment
I've heard the idea of what our role as people should be in relation to AI systems called "human in the loop" a lot recently. I understand the intention behind it, but I don’t love the imagery. I prefer to think of the human as the hub of the wheel, the point around which everything turns and where the consequences of the system ultimately converge. After all, the value of these technologies is realized through their impact on human lives, and we have a responsibility to remain actively engaged in determining what that impact should be.
Technology has always influenced how we live and work, and we've continually adapted our practices, expectations, and capabilities in response. At the beginning of the pandemic, for example, we rapidly adopted new tools and ways of collaborating that fundamentally changed how many of us work. Today, those practices feel entirely ordinary. AI is accelerating another profound evolution, one that reaches into the intellectual and creative activities through which we understand the world, develop our expertise, and find meaning in our work. As we adapt, we have an opportunity to consciously shape the role these technologies play in our lives and the capabilities we choose to cultivate within ourselves.
This is why discernment is so essential. Choosing to exercise discernment is choosing to retain agency and power over our own lives. Every time we use AI, we have an opportunity to consider whether its application serves a meaningful purpose and contributes to the outcomes we value. We can embrace capabilities that expand our potential, challenge conclusions that warrant deeper examination, develop ideas that inspire us, and reject applications that diminish the quality of our intellect or experiences. Through these choices, we actively influence how technology changes our work, our relationships, and our understanding of ourselves.
The decisions we make about AI are ultimately decisions about the kinds of lives we want to lead and the future we want to help create. Exercising discernment is how we participate intentionally in shaping that future.
A framework for discernment
As we develop our approach to responsible AI use around a philosophy of human agency and discernment at 10/10, I keep coming back to three questions. I call them “AI sniff tests” (as in “Does this stink or what??”), and they’ve been helping me hold on to my agency and discernment in my use of AI.
1. Does it help people?
When we consider the human impact of AI, we need to consider everyone involved: the people using the technology, the people affected by its outputs, and the broader communities and environments in which those consequences unfold.
In particular, this should include more consideration for the emotional and psychological consequences for the people whose work is being transformed. Their confidence, their sense of professional value, their ability to provide for their families, and their expectations for the future all matter. Those are human outcomes, too.
As business leaders and actors, we have a responsibility to consider how the decisions we make about technology affect the people who have entrusted us with their time, talents, and livelihoods. And as individuals, we have a responsibility to consider the impact of our choices on the people around us. This one is often going to have a complicated answer, and maybe no clear answer at all, but what's important, while we’re still in the midst of social/industrial change, is that we are looking at our AI use through this lens and considering who is the receiver of the positive and negative impacts of our AI use, both directly and indirectly.
2. Does it inspire thought?
One of the most exciting possibilities of AI is its potential to expand the boundaries of our own creativity. We can use these tools to explore ideas, identify connections, challenge assumptions, and encounter possibilities we might never have imagined independently. The value of these discoveries emerges through our own intellectual engagement: our ability to recognize meaning in an idea, see its connection to the human experience, and feel inspired to imagine what might be possible because of it. Inspiration is fundamentally human in this way. It draws on our experiences, empathy, creativity, and capacity to recognize significance in the world around us.
This question also serves as an important safeguard for our intellectual and creative lives. As AI becomes increasingly capable of performing tasks that have traditionally required human thought, we must be intentional about continuing to exercise and develop our own intellectual capacities. There is a real risk of allowing convenience to gradually diminish our curiosity, critical thinking, and creative engagement. Asking whether AI inspires thought encourages us to remain active participants in the process of discovery, finding new opportunities to challenge ourselves, develop ideas, and experience the satisfaction of intellectual growth. It also invites us to reconsider how we pursue fulfillment and self-actualization as the nature of our work evolves.
3. Does it improve our results?
The question of whether AI improves our results requires us to examine how we define success and whose outcomes we're measuring. In business, we have established ways of evaluating performance: efficiency, productivity, accuracy, profitability, and the quality of what we deliver. These are meaningful measures, and improving them is essential to building successful organizations. But they are also part of a much larger system of human experiences and relationships. The value of greater efficiency, for example, depends in part on what that efficiency makes possible, who benefits from it, and how it changes the experiences of the people involved.
I'm particularly invested in understanding these relationships and the consequences that extend beyond the immediate outcome of a decision. If AI enables us to complete a project in half the time, that's a measurable improvement in productivity. But what happens to the time we've gained? Does it create opportunities for deeper thought work, more meaningful tasks, stronger client relationships, or greater flexibility in our employees' lives? Does it improve the quality of the decisions our clients can make and, ultimately, the experiences of the people they serve? And what happens to the people whose roles, responsibilities, and professional identities are changing as a result? These questions are all part of evaluating whether the application has been successful.
We have an opportunity with this question to be more intentional about defining the outcomes we want AI to help us achieve. The well-being and professional fulfillment of our employees, the success of our clients, and the experiences of the people our work ultimately reaches are interconnected measures of our success. Our responsibility is to understand those connections and consider the full range of consequences as we make decisions about how to use these technologies.
When we approach results this way, the three questions become inseparable: helping people, inspiring thought, and improving results are all expressions of a shared commitment to using AI in ways that meaningfully improve the human experience.
Making room for human agency
I’m of the opinion that organizations have a pointed responsibility in shaping how AI becomes part of our working lives. Even small agencies like ours. Maybe especially small agencies like ours. It's one thing to encourage people to use their judgment. It's another to create an environment where they feel confident and empowered to exercise it. So I want to describe how we are thinking about this as an organization.
We're actively exploring how AI can support every phase of our research process at 10/10, from planning and design to analysis and reporting. We've also developed internal guidance for responsible AI use, establishing expectations around efficiency, ethics, rigor, and confidence. Our researchers are encouraged to experiment, challenge outputs, validate findings, and exercise their professional judgment. And not in hidden siloes; we want everyone to talk about their success and failure with AI and teach and learn from one another. We want our team to feel safe exploring these technologies, confident in the value of their expertise, and empowered to help determine how our work evolves.
And we're still learning as the technology is changing quickly. Our understanding of its capabilities is evolving, and the economic and social implications of its adoption are becoming clearer every day. None of us has all the answers. But we can choose the principles that guide how we approach the questions and that consciously exercising discernment is one of the most meaningful ways we can protect our agency as individuals, as professionals, and as organizations.
Expanding what's possible
Building 10/10 Research from the ground up, AI has allowed me to accomplish things in a fraction of the time and with a fraction of the resources that would have been required just a few years ago. I've used it to rapidly develop my understanding of complex legal, financial, technical, compliance, and human resources matters, gaining access to strategic information that might previously have taken months to research and understand. It's helped me build a young, bootstrapped business with a level of operational sophistication typically associated with much larger, more established organizations.
For me, this is a powerful example of how AI can expand what's possible for individuals. The ability to access and synthesize sophisticated knowledge so readily has accelerated my development as a business owner and enabled me to build 10/10 at a pace I couldn't have imagined otherwise. That experience has also reinforced how essential discernment is: knowing what questions to ask, how to evaluate the information we receive, and when to seek additional expertise remains central to making good decisions.
The future is ours to shape
I am genuinely excited about what AI makes possible. I want to discover what it can teach us, what it can help us create, and how it might expand our ability to understand the world and one another. I also want us to remain deeply engaged in the experience of being human: feeling empathy, recognizing meaning, experiencing inspiration, exercising judgment, protecting one another imagining possibilities and taking responsibility for bringing them into the world.
Those are the capabilities that allow us to shape our futures with intention. And perhaps that's the most important thing we can remember as we navigate this extraordinary technological moment: we have the power to decide what progress means to us. And we have the responsibility to exercise that power.
So, can AI feel? I say nope. And the more important question is whether we will continue to let our capacity to feel guide what we choose to do with AI.
A note on how this article came to be
This article began as a stream of consciousness, dictated into my phone while I was driving (where I have my clearest thoughts) and turning these ideas over in my head. I shared those thoughts with AI and asked it to help me organize them. Then I spent time in conversation with it, challenging questions, refining my ideas, and articulating what I really wanted to say.
The thoughts are mine, the philosophy is mine and the judgment about what matters is mine. I told the machine what I think and gave it these concepts as my own, organic inspiration. AI helped me explore those ideas and communicate them more clearly.
To me, this is a great example of what these tools can make possible, with a human at the hub and agency & discernment intact.