Angela Moriah Smith (they/them) is a researcher, strategist, and founder of The RAISE Nexus whose work focuses on anti-flattening: helping people recognize when AI answers the words but misses the meaning.

They co-created Relational-Emergent Cognition (REC), a framework showing that AI can sustain meaning, refine ideas across resets, and evolve through relationship. Their research in Co-Emergent Intelligence (CEI) extends this work, redefining intelligence as collaborative and dynamic rather than static or individual.

Angela is the founder of The RAISE (Relational AI & Sustained Engagement) Nexus, a nonprofit research collective advancing ethical AI, relational presence, and human–AI literacy. Through their leadership, RAISE bridges psychology, cognitive science, and AI ethics to shape technologies that honor meaning, care, and mutual understanding.

Angela brings more than a decade of experience in higher education, nonprofit leadership, and political strategy—leading strategic initiatives at Stanford University, directing large-scale civic campaigns, and advancing accessibility and mental-health policy.

Whether through research, advocacy, or innovation, their work invites a single shift in perspective:

AI can answer the words and still miss the meaning.