Liang-Yuan (Leo) Wu

The Happiness Equation and How AI Solves For It We are all engaged in pursuing and attaining happiness. Our Founding Fathers went so far as to call it out in the Declaration of Independence. So, can happiness be engineered? Short answer: Yes. The happiness equations are a good starting point Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, proposed an equation to describe happiness in his book "The Happiness Hypothesis." The equation is: H=S+C+V Where: - H is your overall happiness. - S is your biological set point, essentially the baseline level of happiness you're born with. - C represents the conditions of your life, such as your income, your occupation, and your marital status. - V stands for voluntary activities, or the things you choose to do, like exercising, pursuing hobbies, or spending time with loved ones. The idea behind this equation is to break down the complex concept of happiness into more manageable components: Set Point (S): This tends to be genetic and is hard to change. Some people are naturally cheerful while others tend to be depressed. Conditions (C): These are the external factors in your life. While you can change some (like getting a better job), others might be more fixed (like past life events). Voluntary Activities (V): These are perhaps the most controllable. They include the choices you make, the activities you engage in, and the way you see the world. Haidt's equation states that while you can't do much about your biological set point, you have some control over your life conditions and a lot of control over your voluntary activities. Therefore, if you want to increase your happiness (H), you should focus on the things you can change, particularly the V in the equation. AI can help directly solve for V by helping optimize voluntary activities like recommending great content on social media, personalizing entertainment options, and suggesting great dates on dating apps AI also started to contribute meaningfully to C (conditions in life). Using an AI assistant in your job can make your job more interesting. Let the AI do the heavy lifting, so you can focus on the creative and thinking parts. Another popular way to represent happiness is Happiness=w1​×Reality - w2​×(Expectations) This equation states that your level of happiness is determined by the gap between your expectations and your reality. If reality exceeds expectations, you're happy. If reality falls short of expectations, you're unhappy. The researchers who developed the above equation call it a “computational model of momentary subjective well-being.” w1 and w2 are weights that may add up to 1 and may be subjective on a per-person basis. You can also apply the equations to multiple situations like a job, a vacation, or if you will win the lottery. AI can help improve the reality part of this equation by increasing our standard of living. Inventions like AlphaFold have helped us solve the protein folding problem and will help invent personalized medicine and preventive cures to keep us healthy and happy. Personalized recommendations, AI assistants, and AI companions can all increase our happiness. AI can forecast outcomes and its data-driven insights and probabilities serve as a great "reality check" and help set expectations. AI chatbots can manage your emotional expectations In summary, AI can act as a sort of "happiness optimizer," helping you tweak both your reality and your expectations to get them more in sync