“In my work as a professional futurist, I have developed a number of futures scenarios and emerging-future personas. The following list highlights some of the specific trends that I see emerging from today’s thinking about the implications of AI on human essence, human behaviour and human relationships. Essentially, these are among the likely societal and personal shifts by 2035.
- “Database Selves: Trends like ‘Database Selves’ and ‘Artificial Identity’ show that AI will enable us to construct and manage multiple digital personas, tailored to different contexts online. While this offers unprecedented flexibility in self-expression and a kind of multiplicity of the self, it also risks fragmenting the core sense of identity, leaving people grappling with the question: Who am I, really?
- “Outsourced Empathy: With ‘agent-based altruism,’ AI may take over acts of kindness, emotional support, caregiving and charity fundraising. While this could address gaps in human connection and help initiate action especially in caring areas where humans are in lower numbers, it risks dehumanising relationships and the outsourcing of empathy and compassion to algorithms. I am quite sure that human interactions could become more transactional as we increasingly outsource empathy to machines.
AI’s ability to curate everything – from entertainment to social connections – could lead to highly personalized but isolated ‘realities.’ This is a trend I call the rise of ‘Citizen Zero,’ where people are living only in the present: disconnected from a shared past, not striving toward any common vision of a future. Human interactions may become more insular, as we retreat into algorithmically optimized echo chambers.
- “Isolated Worlds: AI’s ability to curate everything – from entertainment to social connections – could lead to highly personalized but isolated ‘realities.’ This is a trend I call the rise of ‘Citizen Zero,’ where people are living only in the present: disconnected from a shared past, not striving toward any common vision of a future. Human interactions may become more insular, as we retreat into algorithmically optimized echo chambers. And as we already know, millions of pages of research, footnotes and opinion are disappearing daily from the internet whilst the Tech Platforms reach into our phones and erase photos or messages whenever they want – perhaps even without our knowledge – and AI is only going to make that more scalable.
- “Parasocial Life: AI companions, deepfake personas and virtual interactions blur the boundaries between real and artificial connections. As ‘Parasocial Life’ (one-way relationships) becomes the norm, humans may form emotional attachments to AI personas and influencers. This raises concerns about whether authentic, reciprocal relationships will be sidelined in favor of more predictable, controllable digital connections where people can programme their partnerships in whatever way they prefer. Personal growth becomes impossible.
Humans could become over-reliant on systems we barely understand – and outcomes we have no control over… This dependence raises existential concerns about autonomy, resilience and what happens when systems fail or are manipulated, and in cases of mistaken identity and punishment in a surveillance society. The concept of the ‘real’ self may diminish in a world where AI curates identities through agents. … ‘Authenticity’ is not a standard that will apply in an AI world at all – a world of clones and copies, Authenticity is de facto dead.
- “Dependency on AI Systems: With AI increasingly embedded in everything from personal decision-making to public services from health to transport and everything in between (the ‘digital public infrastructure’), humans could become over-reliant on systems we barely understand – and outcomes we have no control over – for example on insurance claims or mortgage applications. This dependence on opaque systems raises existential concerns about autonomy, resilience and what happens when systems fail or are manipulated, and in cases of mistaken identity and punishment in a surveillance society. It undermines authentic human intelligence unmediated by AI.
- “The Loss of Authenticity: ‘Authenticity RIP’ is a trend that suggests the concept of the ‘real’ self may diminish in a world where AI curates identities through agents that guide content, contracts and relationships. In fact, ‘authenticity’ is not a standard that will apply in an AI world at all – a world of clones and copies, Authenticity is de facto dead. As we saw recently, Sam Altman’s ‘World’ project wants to link AI agents to people’s personas letting other users verify that an agent is acting on a person’s behalf. We can conjecture that all of this could lead to a counter-movement or AI backlash, where people seek analogue experiences and genuine interactions off-grid to reclaim their humanity. I expect this to develop as a specific trend amongst Generation B (born 2025-onwards).”
This essay was written in January 2025 in reply to the question: Over the next decade, what is likely to be the impact of AI advances on the experience of being human? How might the expanding interactions between humans and AI affect what many people view today as ‘core human traits and behaviors’? This and nearly 200 additional essay responses are included in the report “Being Human in 2035.”