The methodology for this report
This is the 51st report issued by Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center (ITDF) since 2005. (The Center was earlier known as Imagining the Internet and issued joint reports with the Pew Research Project.) This canvassing was conducted by ITDF as global attention to the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) continued to reach higher plateaus due to rapid advances in generative AI systems, LLMs, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Grok, Mistral, Claude and DeepSeek, as the developers of artificial intelligence are racing toward establishing their AI tools and systems as the most prominent choice. The nonscientific canvassing of experts (based on a non-random sample) was conducted through a Qualtrics online instrument between Dec. 27, 2024, and Feb. 1, 2025.
Participants were asked to respond to three multiple-choice questions followed by an open-ended invitation to write an essay-style response about their expectations as to the impact of AI on essential human qualities over the next decade.
A list of the experts who took credit for their responses to the essay question and submitted a generously detailed reply to it is included in an “Acknowledgements” section that can be found below the topline findings on this page.
Invited respondents included technology innovators and developers; professionals, consultants and policy people based in various businesses, nonprofits, foundations, think tanks and government; and academics, independent researchers and professional commentators. In all, 301 experts responded to at least one aspect of the canvassing, including 191 who provided written answers to the open-ended qualitative question.
The writing featured in the “Essays” chapters of this report was in reply to this prompt:
Imagine digitally connected people’s daily lives in the social, political, and economic landscape of 2035. Will humans’ deepening partnership with and dependence upon AI and related technologies have changed being human for better or worse? 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”?
The web-based canvassing instrument was first sent directly to more than 2,000 experts (primarily U.S.-based, 38% located outside North America). Those invited were identified by Elon University during previous studies. The list includes many who were cited in the university’s 2003 study of people who made predictions about the likely future of the internet between 1990 and 1995. More than 1,000 of the respondents invited to participate in this study were added to our database of experts in the last four months of 2024. We invited executives, professionals and policy people from government bodies and technology businesses, think tanks and interest networks (including, those that include experts in law, ethics, philosophy, political science, economics, cognitive and neuroscience, sociology, psychology, education and communications); globally located people working with communications technologies in government positions; technologists and innovators; graduate students and postgraduate researchers; and many who are active in civil society organizations that focus on digital life or affiliated with newly emerging nonprofits and other research units examining the impacts of digital life.
Those networks often involved people tied to relevant organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Society (ISOC), the United Nations’ Global Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) AI Experts Panel and other EU, U.S., UK and IEEE AI advisory boards and panels. Invitees were encouraged to share the survey link with others they believed would have an interest in participating, thus there may have been a small “snowball” effect as some invitees welcomed others to weigh in.
The respondents’ remarks reflect their personal positions and are not the positions of their employers; the descriptions of their leadership roles help identify their background and the locus of their expertise.
Some responses are lightly edited for style and readability. A number of the expert respondents elected to remain anonymous. Because people’s level of expertise is an important element of their participation in the conversation, anonymous respondents were given the opportunity to share a description of their internet expertise or background, and this was noted, when available, in this report.
Some 225 respondents gave details about their locale. Of the experts who made that disclosure, 64% reported being located in North America, 24% were in Europe and 13% said they were located in other parts of the world.
Topline Findings
2025 Imagining the Digital Future Center Canvassing of Experts
Dec. 27, 2024 to Feb. 1, 2025
N = Varies by question and is around 250-260 respondents per question. This is a “nonscientific” canvassing of experts because it is based on a non-random sample. Questions are listed in order of appearance in the survey instrument. The qualitative essay question followed this series of three quantitative questions.
Question 1: Over the next decade, how much do you think humans’ interactions with AI and related technologies are likely to change the essence of being human, the ways individuals act and do not act, what they value, and how they perceive themselves and the world?
Mostly for the better for most people in the world 16%
Mostly for the worse for most people in the world 23%
Changes for better and worse in fairly equal measure 50%
There will be little to no change overall 6%
I don’t know 5%
Question 2: Think ahead to 2035. Imagine how the deepening interactions between people and AIs might impact our ways of, thinking, being and doing – our human operating system, our essence. How is the coming Humanity-Plus-AI future likely to affect the following key aspects of humans’ capacity and behavior by 2035 as compared to when humans were not operating with advanced AI tools?
| More negative change than positive | More positive change than negative | Fairly equal positive, negative change | Little to no change | I don’t know | |
| Seen as more negative than positive | |||||
| Capacity and willingness to think deeply about complex concepts | 50% | 21% | 21% | 7% | 2% |
| Social and emotional intelligence | 50% | 14% | 19% | 14% | 4% |
| Confidence in their own native abilities | 48% | 16% | 22% | 7% | 7% |
| Trust in widely shared values and cultural norms | 48% | 10% | 24% | 11% | 7% |
| Mental well-being | 45% | 14% | 28% | 8% | 5% |
| Empathy and application of moral judgment | 45% | 12% | 25% | 12% | 6% |
| Individual agency, the ability to act independently in the world | 44% | 29% | 16% | 8% | 3% |
| Self-identity, meaning, and purpose in life | 39% | 18% | 24% | 14% | 6% |
| Metacognition, (ability to think analytically about thinking) | 36% | 27% | 20% | 14% | 3% |
| Seen as more positive than negative | |||||
| Curiosity and capacity to learn | 29% | 42% | 23% | 5% | 2% |
| Decision-making and problem-solving abilities | 30% | 40% | 25% | 3% | 2% |
| Innovative thinking and creativity | 30% | 39% | 25% | 3% | 3% |
Question 3: What might be the magnitude of overall change over the next decade in the capacities and behaviors of human individuals – in people’s native operating systems and operations – as we more broadly adapt to and use advanced AIs by 2035? Select the one choice you consider to be most likely. Overall, the amount of change in being human for digitally connected people will be …
Inconsequential: There will be no noticeable change 3%
Barely perceptible: There will be minor change 5%
Moderate and noticeable: Will be some clear, distinct change 31%
Considerable: There will be deep and meaningful change 38%
Dramatic: There will be fundamental, revolutionary change 23%
Question 4: Open-ended Essay Question
Our primary question ties into your answers to the previous questions about the potential impact of humans’ expanded use of more advanced AI on the essence of being human. We suggest a 500-to-1,000-word piece in op-ed style but do write as much as you please. Your detailed illumination of the reasoning behind your expectations for humanity by 2035 will be added to the writing of dozens of other experts; it will be instrumental to this report in service of the public good.
The Question: Imagine digitally connected people’s daily lives in the social, political, and economic landscape of 2035. Will humans’ deepening partnership with and dependence upon AI and related technologies have changed being human for better or worse? 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”?
Primary researchers
Lee Rainie, director, Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center and scholar-in-residence; previously 24-year director of the Pew Research Internet and Technology Project
Janna Anderson, co-founder and senior researcher, Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center and professor of communications; founder and 24-year director of the center’s earlier iteration, the Imagining the Internet Center
We are extremely thankful for the contributions made by the generous individuals who crafted detailed qualitative contributions to this report.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the following authors of the deepest, most-detailed qualitative essays for this report:
Katya Abazajian, founder of the Local Data Futures Initiative; Stephen Abram, principal at Lighthouse Consulting; Greg Adamson, vice president of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology; Stephan Adelson, longtime leading digital health consultant; Micah Altman, social and information scientist at MIT; A. Aneesh, sociologist of globalization, labor and technology at the University of Oregon; David R. Barnhizer, professor of law emeritus at Cleveland State University; Jonathan Baron, professor of psychology and author of “Thinking and Deciding”; Otto Barten, founder and director of the Existential Risk Observatory, based in Amsterdam; Matthew Belge, founder of Vision & Logic LLC; Marjory S. Blumenthal, senior policy researcher and program leader at RAND Corporation; Gary A. Bolles, author of “The Next Rules of Work” and co-founder at eParachute; David Bray, principal at LeadDoAdapt Ventures; David Brin, renowned author, futurist and technology consultant; Axel Bruns, professor at the Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia; Nigel M. Cameron, president emeritus of the Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies; Kathleen Carley, CEO at Netanomics and director of the Center for Computational of Social and Organizational Systems at Carnegie Mellon University; Jamais Cascio, distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future; Vint Cerf, Internet Hall of Fame member and vice president at Google, a founding leader of the IETF and Internet Society; Carol Chetkovich, longtime professor of public policy at Harvard University and Mills College, now retired; Barry K. Chudakov, founder and principal at Sertain Research; Noshir Contractor, an expert in the social science of networks, professor at Northwestern University and trustee of the Web Science Trust; Michael Cornfield, director of the Global Center for Political Engagement at George Washington University; Marina Cortês, professor at the University of Lisbon’s Institute for Astrophysics and Space Sciences; Mark Davis, professor at the University of Melbourne expert in the changing nature of public knowledge; Douglas Dawson, owner and president of CCG Consulting; Jim Dator, futurist and director of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, University of Hawaii-Manoa, Rosalie R. Day, co-founder at Blomma; S.B. Divya, engineer and Hugo & Nebula Award-nominated author of “Machinehood”; Jelle Donders, philosophy of data and digital society student at Tilberg University in the Netherlands; Stephen Downes, expert with the Digital Technologies Research Centre of the National Research Council of Canada; Esther Dyson, Internet pioneer, journalist, entrepreneur and founder of Wellville; Dave Edwards, co-founder of the Artificiality Institute; Jeff Eisenach, senior managing director at NERA Economic Consulting; Charles Ess, professor emeritus of ethics at the University of Oslo; Anriette Esterhuysen, Internet Hall of Fame member from South Africa and Internet pioneer; Charles Fadel, futurist, founder and chair of the Center for Curriculum Redesign; Seth Finkelstein, programmer, consultant and EFF Pioneer of the Electronic Frontier Award winner; Charlie Firestone, president of the Rose Bowl Institute, previously executive director of The Aspen Institute; Tracey Follows, CEO of Futuremade, a UK-based futures consultancy; Jeremy Foote, computational social scientist teaching and doing research at Purdue University; Divina Frau-Meigs, professor and UNESCO chair Savoir Devenir in sustainable digital development, Sorbonne Nouvelle University (Paris); Juan Ortiz Freuler, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California and co-initiator of the non-aligned tech movement; Thomas Gilbert, founder and CEO of Hortus AI; Jerome C. Glenn, co-founder and CEO of The Millennium Project; Marina Gorbis, executive director of the Institute for the Future; Ken Grady, adjunct professor of Law at Michigan State University and Top 50 author in Innovation at Medium; Erhardt Graeff, educator, social scientist and public interest technologist at Olin College of Engineering; Garth Graham, global telecommunications expert and consultant based in Canada; Wendy Grossman, UK-based science writer, author of “net.wars” and founder of The Skeptic magazine; Jonathan Grudin, associate faculty, University of Washington, previously principal designer at Microsoft; John Hartley, professor of digital media and culture, University of Sydney, Australia; Caroline Haythornethwaite, professor emerita at Syracuse University School of Information Studies; Volker Hirsch, chief commercial officer at the UK’s Medicines Discovery Catapult and venture partner at Amadeus Capitala; Bernie Hogan, associate professor and senior research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute; Terri Horton, work futurist with FuturePath LLC; Alexander B. Howard, founder of Civic Texts, an online publication focused on emerging technologies, democracy and public policy; Adriana Hoyos, a senior fellow at Harvard University and digital strategy consultant; Stephan G. Humer, sociologist and computer scientist at Fresenius University of Applied Sciences in Berlin; Jan Hurwitch, director of the Visionary Ethics Foundation; Yasmin Ibrahim, professor of digital economy and culture at Queen Mary University of London; Ravi Iyer, research director at the University of Southern California’s Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision-Making; Maggie Jackson, journalist and author who explores the impact of technology on humanity; Jeff Johnson, founding chair of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility; Paul Jones, professor emeritus of information science, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Dave Karpf, associate professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University; Frank Kaufmann, president, Twelve Gates Foundation; Tim Kelly, lead digital development specialist at World Bank; Michael Kleeman, senior fellow, University of California-San Diego (previously with Boston Consulting and Sprint); Dana Klisanin, psychologist, futurist, co-founder of the ReWilding:Lab, and director of the Center for Conscious Creativity’s, MindLab; Bart Knijnenberg, professor of human-centered computing, Clemson University; David J. Krieger, co-director of the Institute for Communication and Leadership, Switzerland; Friedrich Krotz, mathematician and sociologist at the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research, University of Bremen, Germany; Chris Labash, associate professor of communication and innovation at Carnegie Mellon University; Lawrence Lannom, senior vice president at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives; John Laudun, researcher of computational models of discourse who teaches narrative intelligence at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette; Sandra Leaton-Gray, chair of the Artificial and Human Intelligence group of the British Educational Research Association; Sam Lehman-Wilzig, head of the communications department at the Peres Academic Center in Rehovot, Israel, and author of “Virtuality and Humanity”; Kevin T. Leicht, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and research scientist at Discovery Partners Institute, Chicago; Gerd Leonhard, speaker, author, futurist and CEO at The Futures Agency, based in Zurich, Switzerland; Peter Levine, associate dean of academic affairs and professor of citizenship and public affairs at Tufts University; Liza Loop, educational technology pioneer, futurist, technical author and consultant; Peter Lunenfeld, professor of design and media arts at the University of California-Los Angeles; Clifford Lynch, director, Coalition for Networked Information; Liselotte Lyngsø, founder of Future Navigator, based in Copenhagen, Denmark; Winston Wenyan Ma, director of the Global Public Investment Funds Forum and adjunct professor at New York University School of Law; Keram Malicki-Sanchez, Canadian founder and director of VRTO Spatial Media World Conference; Annette Markham, chair and professor of media literacy and public engagement at Utrecht University, the Netherlands; John Markoff, fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and author of “Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Machines”; Giacomo Mazzone, global project director for the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction; Sean McGregor, founding director of the Digital Safety Research Institute at the UL Research Institutes; Danil Mikhailov, director of DataDotOrg and trustee at 360Giving; Riel Miller, longtime futurist at UNESCO, currently a futures consultant; Laura Montoya, founder and executive director at Accel AI Institute and president of Latinx in AI; Mario Morino, chairman of the Morino Institute and co-founder at Venture Philanthropy Partners; Eni Mustafaraj, associate professor of computer science at Wellesley College; Michael R. Nelson, senior fellow at Asia Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Denis Newman Griffis, lecturer in data science at the University of Sheffield and expert in responsible design of AI for medicine and health, Jean Paul Nkurunziza, expert moderator with the Internet Society and researcher at CIPESA Burundi; Kevin Novak, founder and CEO of futures firm 2040 Digital; Mícheál Ó Foghlú, engineering director and core developer at Google, based in Waterford, Ireland; William Ian O’Byrne, associate professor of literacy education at the College of Charleston; James Kunle Olorundare, president of Nigeria’s chapter of the Internet Society; Andy Opel, professor of communications at Florida State University; Zizi Papacharissi, professor of communications and political science, University of Illinois-Chicago; Ginger Paque, senior policy editor at the Diplo Foundation; Raymond Perrault, co-director of Stanford University’s AI Index Report 2024 and leading computer scientist at SRI International from 1988-2017; Jeremy Pesner, policy analyst, researcher and speaker expert on technology, innovation and futurism; Daniel Pimienta, leader of the Observatory of Linguistic and Cultural Diversity on the Internet, based in the Dominican Republic; Russell Poldrack, psychologist and neuroscientist, director of the Stanford Center for Reproducible Neuroscience; Aleksandra Przegalinska, head of Human-Machine Interaction Research Center and leader of the AI in Management program at Kozminski University, Warsaw, Poland; Calton Pu, co-director, Center for Experimental Research in Computer Systems, Georgia Institute of Technology; Alex Raad, longtime technology executive and host of the TechSequences podcast; Courtney C. Radsch, director of the Center for Journalism & Liberty at the Open Markets Institute and non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution; Marine Ragnet, affiliate researcher at the New York University Peace Research and Education Program working on frameworks to promote ethical AI; Alf Rehn, professor of innovation, design and management at the University of Southern Denmark; Peter Reiner, professor emeritus of neuroscience and neuroethics at the University of British Columbia; Richard Reisman, futurist, consultant and nonresident senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation; Jason Resnikoff, Harvard-based expert on intellectual history and the history of technology and co-author of “AI Isn’t a Radical Technology”; Howard Rheingold, pioneering internet sociologist and author of “The Virtual Community”; Glenn Ricart, founder and CTO of U.S. Ignite, driving the smart communities movement; Neil Richardson, futurist and founder of Emergent Action; Christopher Riley, executive director of the Data Transfer Initiative, previously with R Street Institute and leader of Mozilla’s global public policy; Mauro D. Rios, adviser to the eGovernment Agency of Uruguay and director of the Uruguayan Internet Society chapter; Steven Rosenbaum, co-founder and executive director of the Sustainable Media Center in New York; Louis Rosenberg, CEO and chief scientist at Unanimous AI; Paul Rosenzweig, founder of Red Branch, a cybersecurity consulting company, and a senior advisor to The Chertoff Group; Liz Rykert, an independent strategist based in Toronto; Paul Saffo, a highly respected, longtime Silicon Valley-based technology forecaster; Alexandra Samuel, data journalist, speaker, author and co-founder and principal at Social Signal; Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN and author of “The Tech That Comes Next”; Eric Saund, independent AI research scientist; Mark Schaefer, marketing strategist and author of “Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World,”; Daniel S. Schiff, assistant professor and co-director of the Governance and Responsible AI Lab at Purdue University; Ray Schroeder, retired associate vice chancellor for online learning at the University of Illinois, Springfield; Henning Schulzrinne, Internet Hall of Fame member and co-chair of the Internet Technical Committee of the IEEE; Robert Seamans, professor of game theory and strategy at New York University’s school of business; Doc Searls, co-founder of Customer Commons, co-author of “The Cluetrain Manifesto” and “The Intention Economy” and internet pioneer; Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex, UK, author of “Being You: A New Science of Consciousness”; Greg Sherwin, Singularity University global faculty member, and technology consultant and board member based in Portugal; John M. Smart, global futurist and foresight consultant, and entrepreneur and CEO of Foresight University; Philippa Smith, digital media expert, research consultant and commentator based in New Zealand; Brian Southwell, distinguished fellow and lead scientist for public understanding of science at RTI International; Jim C. Spohrer, board member of the International Society of Service Innovation Professionals and ServCollab, previously a longtime IBM leader; Peter Suber, expert in the philosophy of law, director of the Harvard Open Access Project and senior researcher at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society; Jonathan Taplin, author of “Move Fast and Break Things: How Google, Facebook and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy”; Evelyne A. Tauchnitz, senior researcher at the University of Lucerne’s Institute of Social Ethics; Dhanaraj Thakur, research director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, previously at the World Wide Web Foundation; Charalambos Tsekeris, research associate professor in digital sociology at the National Centre for Social Research of Greece and acting chair at the Greek National Commission for Bioethics & Technoethics; Risto Uuk, European Union research lead for the Future of Life Institute, focused primarily on researching policymaking on AI, based in Brussels, Belgium; Marcus van der Erve, sociologist and physicist author of “Palpable Voice: To Survive, Humanity Must be Reprogrammed; AI Will Do it,” based in Antwerp, Belgium; Cristos Velasco, international practitioner in cyberspace law and regulation and board member at the Center for AI and Digital Policy, based in Mannheim, Germany; Umut Pajaro Velasquez, researcher and professor from Caragena, Colombia, expert on issues related to the ethics and governance of AI; David Vivancos, CEO at MindBigData.com and author of “The End of Knowledge,” based in Madrid; Maja Vujovic, owner and director of Compass Communications in Belgrade, Serbia; R Ray Wang, principal analyst, founder and CEO of Constellation Research; Wayne Wei Wang, a Ph.D. candidate in computational legal studies at the University of Hong Kong and CyberBRICS Fellow at FGV Rio Law School in Brazil; Nell Watson, president of EURAIO, the European Responsible Artificial Intelligence Office and an AI Ethics expert with IEEE; David Weinberger, senior researcher and fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society; Russ White, Internet infrastructure architect and Internet pioneer; Lloyd J. Whitman, senior advisor at the Atlantic Council, previously chief scientist at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology and assistant director at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Alexandra Whittington, futurist, writer and foresight expert on the future of business team at Tata Consultancy Services; Dmitri Williams, professor of technology and society at the University of Southern California; Pamela Wisniewski, professor of human-computer interaction and director of the Sociotechnical Interaction Research Lab at Vanderbilt University; Michael Wollowski, professor of computer science at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Tom Wolzien, inventor, analyst and media executive; Jamie Woodhouse, founder of Sentientism, a group promoting a philosophy employing the application of evidence, reason and compassion; Rabia Yasmeen, a senior consultant for Euromonitor International based in Dubai, UAE; Simeon Yates, professor of digital culture, co-director of Digital Media and Society Institute at the University of Liverpool and research lead for the UK government’s Digital Culture team; Warren Yoder, longtime director at the Public Policy Center of Mississippi, now an executive coach; Youngsook Park, futurist and chair of the Korean Node of The Millennium Project and lecturer in futures studies at Yonsei University; Amy Zalman, a strategic foresight consultant and leader based at Deloitte’s New York office; Lior Zalmanson, a professor at Tel Aviv University whose expertise is in algorithmic culture and the digital economy.