Across hundreds of stories in our human experience research, five recurring patterns stand out for how AI is reshaping the person using it.
A conversation with Christine Rosen, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of "The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World."
Announcing Benjamin Bratton at the Artificiality Summit! We're thrilled to announce that Benjamin Bratton will be joining us
Understanding the Human Side of AI—Before It’s Too Late.
Don't miss the initial research paper from The Chronicle.
"We observe people forming psychological relationships with AI systems through three key orientations: how AI responses blend into their thinking, how their identity becomes entangled with AI interaction, and their capacity to revise meaning frameworks when familiar categories break down. People navigate five states or territories as they adapt—recognition, integration, blurring, fracture, and reconstruction—in non-linear patterns shaped by individual psychology and context.
The central finding: Symbolic Plasticity—the ability to create new meaning frameworks—appears to causally enable conscious AI relationship management. This flexibility allows people to reframe their understanding of thinking, creativity, and identity when AI collaboration challenges traditional boundaries."
AI is no longer just a tool we use—it’s something we think with. It’s reshaping how we solve problems, express ourselves, and connect with others. For some, it expands creativity and confidence. For others, it introduces confusion, dependency, or a quiet erosion of trust and identity.
At the Artificiality Institute, we study this transformation—not in theory, but in lived experience. Through in-depth research with over 1,000 people—including workshops, deep interviews, and digital ethnography—we’ve documented how people are adapting to AI in their daily work and lives.
Now we need to go deeper.
The changes we’re witnessing aren’t one-time events—they’re unfolding, compounding, and accelerating. We believe it’s essential to track this transformation longitudinally—to understand how AI continues to shape minds, cultures, and meaning over time. It’s a hard thing to study, given the pace of change. But we believe it’s urgent. Without this view, we risk missing the real cost—or promise—of what’s happening to human agency in the age of synthetic intelligence.
We study how AI is reshaping human meaning-making—not just what people do, but how they decide what matters. We’ve identified three psychological traits that influence this process:
This last one—Symbolic Plasticity—is at the heart of our work. It helps explain why some people adapt to AI consciously and creatively, while others feel lost or stuck. It’s not about intelligence or technical skill. It’s about the ability to rethink what’s important when the rules start to shift.
We’ve also identified five recurring psychological states that show up as people adapt to AI:
Recognition, Integration, Blurring, Fracture, and Reconstruction.
These aren’t fixed steps or a linear path. They’re dynamic territories—people move between them depending on context, emotional resilience, and the support structures around them. Some loop back. Others skip ahead. But across the stories, these patterns help us understand how adaptation really unfolds over time.
AI is being adopted faster than any technology in history. But we’re not seeing an equal investment in understanding its psychological and cultural impact.
Your support helps us:
We are building the field of human-symbolic adaptation—a field focused on what happens to people as we live, think, and act alongside increasingly powerful synthetic systems.
Your support enables independent, high-integrity research into one of the most urgent transformations of our time. We’re aligned with missions focused on human flourishing, education, civic capacity, and cultural renewal.
Every contribution helps us reach more people and create tools that stay grounded in lived experience—not hype. This isn’t about resisting AI. It’s about supporting the human capacities that make conscious adaptation possible.
We’re always looking for people willing to share how AI is shaping their work, thinking, or relationships. Your story helps us build a more complete understanding of this moment—and helps others find their way through it.
We offer research-backed services to help teams adapt to AI in ways that preserve clarity, trust, and purpose. That includes workshops, cultural assessments, and advisory support based on our framework for conscious adaptation.
Please reach out to us at hello@artificialityinstitute.org to support our work or donate directly here.
The question is no longer whether humans and AI will co-evolve. That’s already happening.
The real question is: Will we evolve with awareness, care, and agency—or drift into dependency without realizing what we’ve lost?
We believe people can adapt wisely. But only if we name what’s happening—while it’s still happening.
Please consider supporting our Chronicle research with a donation to the Artificiality Institute. Every contribution is an investment in a future where technology is designed for people, not just for profit—and where meaning matters.
