“Throughout history, the humans have been mining three classes of resources from Mother Nature‚ two living and one inanimate: plants, animals and materials for tools. We give names to animals routinely; we rarely name the tools and we almost never name the plants (except en masse, as species). This shows we’ve always comprehended an inherent difference between a field full of grass, an inanimate instrument and a hot-blooded creature. That difference is expressed in the uniqueness of the immutable living beings vs. the scalable replicability of mutable man-made tools.
“This ancient demarcation is suddenly starting to blur. Each of our finest newly emerging digital instruments – the talking bots – appears quite unique and individual yet they can be more numerous than the leaves of grass, in fact, their numbers may be infinite.
“We are gradually becoming accustomed to the rampant synthetic outgrowth of our large language models. The AI narrators’ voices in how-to videos, the seemingly virtuous ‘virtual colleagues’ that we are starting to encounter in workplaces, the chatbot personas that seem to be apologizing all day long for misunderstanding us.
“The human mind has an amazing capacity for storing faces, names and other pertinent details of individuals with whom we connect. But by 2035 the scalable capacity of AI to generate ever-new synths could become overwhelming for us. What’s irksome is not the fact that these dupes will be ubiquitous; it is their endless variety and effortless inconstancy. We will be overwhelmed by their presence everywhere. We will resent that saturation, as it will keep depleting our mental and emotional capacities on daily basis. We will push back and demand limits.
Gen X will explore even the wildest options and, at the same time, push for the regulation of AI. Millennials … it will fall to them to reinvent education and ensure it is effective, despite everything. Those in Gen Z, who are adopting AI as part of their education will benefit the most from its development. The fastest learners ever, they will become unstoppable, as recent movements the world over patently demonstrate. Generations Alpha and Beta, however, will not remember a time without myriad thinking machines being common. Their attitudes toward them will surely differ from those of the rest of us. But let’s hope they don’t lose any universal aptitudes in the process. That’s mission-critical, because in 10 years, they will jointly make up some 40% of the world’s population.
“Synthetic companions, knockoff shopping assistants, faux healthcare attendants and all other human replicas generated by machines on behalf of the most enterprising humans among us, will start to feel like a super-invasive, alien army of body snatchers. Sooner or later, we will stir and rebel. Their manufacturers, wranglers and peddlers will swiftly adjust when their infinite ability to generate endless faux humans misses the mark in the markets. When all is said and done, only a few basic categories of generative AI personas will become standard, akin to Comedia del Arte’s stock characters.
“Eventually, we will have a choice between a gutsy girl and a jovial jock, or between a caring matron and a handsome gent (and so on) – just like we opt for a sedan vs. a pickup, way before we look up any specific car manufacturer’s showroom, website or ad, let alone car model, colour or year. These synthetic, mimetic, agentic tools will someday come in major demographic types, with adjustable details and very strict rules of engagement. Choosing a unique name for them on demand will be an extra cost. It’s also likely that this now-volatile category of tools will become regulated and standardized. A slew of lawsuits will ensure that.
“In the 10-year period ahead of us, living and working with AI is not going to incur a tectonic change in the human nature, nor a shift our perception of ourselves or of the world. Or rather, any such change won’t be immediately perceptible. How it will roll out depends on who you are.
- “The Silent Generation will appreciate the assistance and companionship that AI can offer but it could fall prey to AI-enhanced fraud.
- “Many Baby Boomers will tap whatever AI they can, picking up easily on the easiest of the five generations of interfaces they have had to learn in their lives: tape, cards, commands, WYSIWYG and now voice and conversation).
- “Gen X will explore even the wildest options and, at the same time, push for the regulation of AI.
- “The Millennials will negotiate the delicate balance of raising children around pets and talking tools; they’ll often pray for the privilege of silence. It will fall to them to reinvent education and ensure it is effective, despite everything.
- “Those in Gen Z, who are adopting AI as part of their education, will benefit the most from its development. The fastest learners ever, they will become unstoppable, as recent movements the world over patently demonstrate.
- “Generations Alpha and Beta, however, will not remember a time without myriad thinking machines being common. Their attitudes toward them will surely differ from those of the rest of us. But let’s hope they don’t lose any universal aptitudes in the process. That’s mission critical, because in 10 years, they will jointly make up some 40% of the world’s population.”
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.”