From Principles to Product: AI with Heart and JoyNet for Youth Well-Being

Open to Everyone

Building on years of studying violence, grief, and trauma online, I am now asking a different question: what if joy is not a byproduct of safer digital spaces, but an intervention we can design for. In this talk, I introduce AI with Heart, a framework for translating joy-informed principles into the development of more humane AI systems. I then share JoyNet, a youth mental health platform co-developed with teens, computer scientists, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists, designed to help young people find, shape, and experience more joyful and supportive content online.

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About the Speaker

Desmond Upton Patton’s research explores how social media relates to gun violence, grief, and loss, and how online communities shape offline behavior. A leading, highly cited scholar in this area, his work has expanded from detecting trauma and preventing violence online to studying language analysis and algorithmic bias in AI. He serves on advisory councils for Spotify, Axon, and TikTok, and advises several AI startups.

Recognizing that traditional data science often misses the cultural and linguistic nuances of predominantly Black and Hispanic youth, he created the Contextual Analysis of Social Media (CASM) framework to bring culture, context, and inclusion into machine learning and computer vision. He is also developing a “joy” research agenda—building theory and practical guidance for integrating joy into AI to advance equity, imagination, and human connection.

Dr. Patton is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received multiple national leadership honors, including Obama Foundation USA Leader and RockHealth Top 50 in Digital Health.