Jason Whitlow
· Applied Humanity

I help humans help humans.

I guide, build, teach, and partner with founders, leaders, and mission-driven organizations — helping them become more coherent, more humane, and more effective.

My work lives where technology, ethics, and human need converge.

Everything we design, build, write, and share is an act of offering — something given to serve another. The quality of that offering depends on two kinds of knowledge: knowing what you have to give and knowing what others need.

At the heart of my practice is a conviction: to offer something that genuinely serves, we need a deeper understanding of the human condition — what we experience, what we truly need, and what we can truly offer each other. That understanding is not something we simply have — it is a discipline, one we can cultivate with rigor. I have spent my life doing this, drawing on:

  • Training in cognitive science, computer science, and design at Harvard;

  • Deep study and practice of the Tibetan sciences of mind and medicine, which offer rigorous methods for understanding the nature of experience and addressing the well-being of ourselves and others; and

  • Three decades of work as an advisor, consultant, designer, educator, and health practitioner, which has taught me how to translate that understanding into work that actually serves people.

For 30 years, I’ve helped people and organizations discover, articulate, and give form to what they uniquely have to offer. My work spans AI, robotics, assistive technology, fintech, healthcare, public service, and the arts — advising on strategy, building brands and experiences, designing products used by hundreds of thousands, cultivating communities, and building international organizations.

What is human has never mattered more. We’re living through a time when synthetic intelligence is reshaping how we create, communicate, and relate. The tools are extraordinary. But it is people who know what truly matters. The defining question of our time is not what technology can do — but how we ensure it serves what people truly need. That is the practice of Applied Humanity.

How I Work

  • Guide

Strategic counsel for leaders, boards, and organizations navigating the intersection of technology, ethics, and human need

  • Build

Brands, experiences, products, programs, curricula, communities, institutions — giving form to what an organization exists to offer

  • Teach

Keynotes, workshops, and trainings on humane design, applied ethics, and the discipline of understanding and serving the human condition

  • Partner

Embedded, long-term collaboration with organizations whose work demands both strategy and humanity

“Over 30 years and more than 20 collaborations, Jason is the person I trust to see what the rest of us miss — the gap between what we think we’re building and what people actually need — and to close it. I work with world-class researchers, technologists, and policymakers every day. None of them do what Jason does. The work is always better because of him, and what he brings has never mattered more.”

— Mark Nitzberg, Ph.D.
Founding Executive Director, UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI
Co-Founder, International Association for Safe & Ethical AI

Select Engagements

Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence

Brand identity for UC Berkeley's pioneering AI safety research center, founded by Turing Award-winner Stuart Russell, establishing the public face of provably beneficial AI development

The Blindsight Corporation

Brand, product design, and grant development for AI-powered assistive technology company serving 200,000+ blind and low-vision users; acquired by Amazon

Anybots

Brand and positioning for iconic Silicon Valley robotics firm co-founded by Trevor Blackwell of Y Combinator; featured in HBO’s acclaimed series Silicon Valley

Viaweb

Customer research and experience design for the company widely credited as the first web application and SaaS platform, founded by Paul Graham and Robert Morris; acquired by Yahoo for $49M, where it became Yahoo! Store

Smartleaf

Branding, positioning, and experience design for fintech platform managing $50B+ in assets, democratizing personalized wealth management

Creativity Explored

A decade of strategic partnership — from experience design and product development to licensing programs and community building — transforming a beloved San Francisco art studio into an internationally recognized champion of creative expression and disability rights

Sorig Khang

Founded, built, and directed Tibetan Medicine nonprofit organization — from brand and communications to educational programs and clinical offerings — serving a global community of students, practitioners, and patients

If you’re building something that matters — and you want it to be right for the people it’s meant to serve — I’d welcome a conversation: hello@jasonwhitlow.net

With my best wishes,
Jason

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.”

— Martha Graham