You are invited to attend:
BACKUP: ALIGNING AI WITH HUMAN FLOURISHING
An intimate gathering with AI innovators, family offices, and philanthropists
Sunday, January 25th, 2026
12:00 PM – 4:00 PM PT
Hosted by Cindy Mercer and Don McKinney
How do we ensure that AI truly serves humanity?
As frontier AI models advance at an unprecedented pace, we are at a pivotal moment—one that demands not only technical excellence and speed, but also deep human wisdom and collective intentionality.
Don McKinney and Cindy Mercer invite you to an intimate, off-the-record gathering at their Sonoma nature retreat to learn about Positive AI Labs, a non-profit building the infrastructure to steer AI toward human flourishing, and to explore how our future with AI can be shaped by wisdom, compassion, and human well-being.
The Discussion
This afternoon is designed for principled decision-makers who are actively considering how to shape the trajectory of AI for the benefit of humanity.
Together, we’ll explore:
What is the current AI landscape and the state of human values alignment?
How do we move beyond competitive pressures to build AI grounded in wisdom and human flourishing?
How can we scale AI’s global impact while deepening human well-being and connection?
What does it mean to steward this technology with wisdom and care?
The Agenda
Raising AI for Human Flourishing
Lake Dai — Professor of AI/ML, Carnegie Mellon University; Managing Partner, Sancus Ventures
State of the AI Landscape
Stacey Lawson — Co-Founder, Benevolent AI Future; Co-Founder, Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET), UC Berkeley
Panel: Current Best Practices in AI Alignment
Arun Rao — AI/ML Lead, Meta; Professor of AI/ML, UCLA
Beth Barnes — CEO, METR
Arthur Kiulian — CEO, AI for Good; Open Babylon
Maty Bohacek — Stanford; Google DeepMind
Positive AI Labs: Aligning AI for Human Flourishing
(Investment Opportunity)
Positive AI Labs team
The Positive AI Ecosystem
Kwiri Yang — Co-Founder, Quantum AI Institute with Elliott Donnelley — Chair Emeritus, Forward Global; Co-Founder, KDX
Discussion and Q&A
(40 minutes)
Positive AI Labs:
Ensuring AI for Human Flourishing
Positive AI Labs is a non-profit initiative fiscally sponsored by Forward Global, creating open, community-owned tools to ensure that the world’s most powerful AI frontier models are shaped by the best of human values.
We develop datasets and evaluations that train AI systems to act with wisdom, compassion, and ethical discernment. Our solutions will guide frontier AI models that will touch over 5 billion people. Our goal is to influence how every major AI model is trained—helping define what “good” means in complex human situations where there is rarely a single “right” answer.
Over the next 3–8 years, humanity has a unique window to embed our deepest values into the foundations of artificial intelligence, helping to ensure a future of human flourishing in the age of AI.
Sonoma Summit
Sonoma Summit is a private, 1,100-acre, mountaintop sanctuary. An exclusive destination for invitation-only gatherings where investors, technologists, and thought leaders explore long-horizon ideas.
RSVP
Please RSVP to Donna Lee by December 19th
donna@forward-global.org
There is no cost to attend as we are being hosted by Forward Global member Cindy Mercer and entrepreneur Don McKinney.
This is an invitation-only gathering, but if you know someone who would bring a valuable perspective to this conversation, we’d love to hear about them!