“Human propensities combined with AI as it is on course to develop over the next 10 years in the U.S. could result in longer but less-fulfilling lives. If we follow the path we are on, the unintended negative consequences of AI will swamp the benefits for society. We will discount critical thinking and reward just-in-time learning above multidisciplinary, experiential, contextual decision-making. Can our innate curiosity save us from an AI-reliant post-truth dystopia?
“The human attention budget allows us to make routinized decisions which never rise to the level of consciousness. Patterns that we think we have seen before get categorized as needing our attention or not. Pattern recognition is affected by numerous variables, both genetic and environmental. The lack of infinite attention combines with our hardwiring for bias; particularly patterns that are retrievable from short-term memory or boosted by negative emotion. I am not so worried about potential human laziness – curiosity counteracts that – but about our growing reliance on AI-asserted ‘facts.’ AI crutches become one less debit to individuals’ attention budgets.
“Both machine learning (ML) and large language models (LLMs) excel at pattern recognition – ‘better than humans’ is vastly understated. This capacity will yield outstanding tools for medical research and efficacy of treatments within the next 10 years. All human knowledge about the physical sciences will benefit tremendously. And LLMs, in particular, are affecting our discourse now. We can expect them to impact content, media and modes both positively and negatively.
Can our innate curiosity save us from an AI-reliant post-truth dystopia? Will the fork in the road for the U.S. occur before or after 2035? Will reliance on AI and its gatekeeper companies make us distrust our institutions? Or will it be the instigator to change these institutions? … Will AI be used as a tool to catalyze curiosity and what could be?
“Humans pay attention to novelty. Misinformation and disinformation have proven allure. That allure and desire for affirmation combine to drive viral messaging. AI agents will facilitate and amplify our weaknesses, further spreading inaccuracies and falsehoods. LLM use will eventually poison the data on which they are trained. Myopic technology gatekeepers have discarded policies intended to flag incorrect data, which will hasten this damaging feedback loop.
“Will the fork in the road for the U.S. occur before or after 2035? Will reliance on AI and its gatekeeper companies make us distrust our institutions? Or will it be the instigator to change these institutions? Information that is counter to what we believe creates an uncomfortable state of cognitive dissonance. Will the false information be interpreted with confirmation bias? We all want to believe in our preferences. Or will AI be used as a tool to catalyze curiosity and what could be? I have no idea.
“With what is in the pipeline, agentic LLMs will be common in workflows by 2035, replacing not only busy work, but also experts. Many people find purpose in developing expertise. (I am one.) Will AI agents help us innovate and collaborate? Not necessarily. For business, the problems of groupthink (with AI-bounded probability distributions) and of silos will increase along disciplinary or project lines, while critical context becomes increasingly difficult to model. Will humans feel enabled to bridge the gaps?
“Not many people think about thinking. The AI gatekeepers have small staffs, whom they pay, and pay little attention to, for that. These researchers study how people think in a variety contexts, with the implicit goal of their own company’s revenue generation. It doesn’t pay to think long-term when the race is a sprint.
Human values underlie behavioral norms with a caveat: context determines how our behaviors manifest our values. Society benefits when individuals can have reasonable expectations of mutual respect of institutions and enterprises. Does the mutual respect exist now in this political economy? Do business enterprises have human values?
“Human values underlie behavioral norms with a caveat: context determines how our behaviors manifest our values. Society benefits when individuals can have reasonable expectations of mutual respect of institutions and enterprises. Does the mutual respect exist now in this political economy? Do business enterprises have human values? If they do, how do their behaviors react to existential competition? By not thinking hard about the context of peoples’ lives Unbounded by AI regulation, in 2035 individuals in the U.S. could face longer but less fulfilling lives.
“As individuals, we are subject to the values reflected in the AI gatekeepers’ models, directly if we use the models ourselves, and incomparably more, indirectly. Individuals are downstream of both AI gatekeepers and enterprises and institutions, the latter of which do not understand what AI is doing and the data that goes into the training of it.
“The more ubiquitous the use of AI systems becomes the fewer people will question how they were derived in the first place. Automated hiring systems over the last two decades exemplify this. Are people that get hired better at their jobs? (Look at the turnover rate.) Yet, businesses are layering on more and more AI-enabled solutions, not questioning the premise that automation is the answer. Is it progress or not? That depends on the criteria and at what level of resolution: society, enterprises or individuals.
“Our reliance on AI will exceed our ability to fact check it; never mind the existential threat to humankind. In 2035, are we going to have AI tools that feed human curiosity, or will be reliant on AI crutches?”
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 2025 report “Being Human in 2035.”