Jason Whitlow
Applied Humanity
I help humans help humans.
I work with founders, leaders, and organizations to create things worthy of the people they serve.
For 30 years, I’ve helped people and organizations discover, articulate, and give form to what they uniquely have to offer — across AI, assistive technology, fintech, healthcare, education, and the arts.
The Work
Guide
Strategic counsel for leaders, boards, and organizations on what they exist to do, who they're here for, and how to grow without losing sight of either
Build
Identities, experiences, products, programs, curricula, communities, and institutions — giving form to what a person or organization exists to offer
Teach
Talks, workshops, and trainings on AI and human values, applied ethics, finding what’s yours to give, and building things worthy of the people they’re meant for
Partner
Embedded, long-term collaboration with people and organizations whose work demands both strategic clarity and genuine care for others
The Practice
The practice begins with caring — about the people we wish to serve, what they experience, and what they deserve.
That care expresses itself first as listening: deep, sustained attention to what people experience and express. Then as reflection: making sense of what we observed. And over time, as understanding that becomes how we meet the world. From that ground, all we make and do can be an offering, given for the good of others.
Together, this is a discipline. I’ve cultivated it through:
Deep study and practice of the Tibetan sciences of mind and medicine, which offer rigorous methods for understanding what people experience and what benefits them;
Training in cognitive science, computer science, and design at Harvard; and
Three decades of work as an advisor, consultant, designer, educator, and health practitioner, which taught me how to translate that understanding into work that actually serves.
What is human has never mattered more.
Synthetic intelligence is reshaping how we create, communicate, and relate. The tools are extraordinary — but only people know what truly matters. The question is not what technology can do, but how we ensure it meets what people truly need. That is the practice of Applied Humanity.
“Over 30 years and more than 20 collaborations, Jason has been the person I trust to spot what the rest of us miss — the gap between what we think we’re building and what people actually need — and help close it. I work with outstanding researchers, practitioners, and policymakers every day, but Jason brings something different. Our work is always better when we work with him. What he offers feels more important now than ever.”
— Mark Nitzberg, Ph.D.
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 ⪼
Founding brand identity for UC Berkeley's pioneering AI safety research center established by Stuart Russell, co-author of the definitive AI textbook
Blindsight ⪼
Brand, product design, and grant development for AI-powered assistive technology used by 200,000+ blind and low-vision users; acquired by Amazon
Viaweb ⪼
Customer research and experience design for one of the first web apps, founded by Paul Graham and Robert Morris; acquired by Yahoo for $49M
Smartleaf ⪼
Brand, marketing, and product design across two decades for fintech platform managing $90B+ in assets, making personalized wealth management accessible to all
Anybots ⪼
Brand and visual identity for iconic robotics firm created by Trevor Blackwell, co-founder of Y Combinator; featured in HBO’s Silicon Valley
Creativity Explored ⪼
A decade of strategic partnership — experience design, program development, and community building — for an internationally recognized champion of creative expression and disability rights
Sorig Khang ⪼
Founded, built, and directed a Tibetan Medicine nonprofit serving a global community of students, practitioners, and patients
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