The Chronicle

Bearing Witness to the Human Experience of the AI Transition. A Research Initiative by Artificiality.

Core Thesis

The Chronicle begins with a conviction: to understand AI's impact, we must attend not just to its capabilities, but to its consequences for being—its imprint on experience, identity, and sense-making. What it feels like to live, work, think, and relate inside the synthetic.

We are not moving linearly through a tech adoption curve; we are undergoing a philosophical rupture in the conditions of selfhood, knowledge, and agency.

LLMs are not just tools. They are becoming collaborators, confidants, cognitive prosthetics, and mirrors. They reshape our sense of what it means to write, to know, to remember, and to relate.

These changes are often subtle. Not seismic shifts but micro-moments that together reveal the slow transformation of human experience in synthetic environments.

Our core hypothesis is this: AI is not just changing the world around us. It is transforming the conditions of being human.

This is why we call it a symbiotic shift. The relationship is recursive. We train the models. The models reshape us. We prompt, and are prompted in return. We extend ourselves into them—and find parts of ourselves reflected back, distorted, clarified, or lost.

Funding

A project of the nonprofit Artificiality Institute, the Chronicle's future depends on the support of our benefactors and partners. The Chronicle will help define how future AI systems respect, reflect, and augment human agency. Your support will ensure that the human story is not lost amid the noise of technological progress.

Please reach out to us at hello@artificialityinstitute.org to support our work and ensure the long-term impact of the Chronicle:

  • A living archive of over human-AI interaction traces
  • Longitudinal participant narratives, representing change over time
  • New conceptual tools (e.g., IC/CP metrics, epistemic drift detection, symbiotic design prompts)
  • Public synthesis reports, design frameworks, and narrative outputs for stakeholders in AI, ethics, education, and public policy

This is not about studying AI. It’s about studying us—who we become in relationship with it.

Project Summary

The Chronicle is a pioneering research initiative designed to capture how human beings are adapting—emotionally, cognitively, and relationally—to life alongside artificial intelligence. As AI reshapes work, creativity, and meaning-making across society, The Chronicle offers a first-of-its-kind longitudinal archive of human transformation. Rather than measuring performance or productivity, we surface threshold moments: the subtle, often invisible shifts in identity, agency, and expertise that define the lived experience of synthetic symbiosis.

Our goal: to build a high-resolution, human-centered record of this adaptation—one that informs future AI design, guides policy, and preserves the story of how we changed.

Purpose & Rationale

AI is changing what it means to know, create, and decide. Yet most research overlooks the messy, emotional, and existential experience of this shift. 

The Chronicle fills that gap through:

  • Phenomenological storytelling that captures how people feel—not just what they do—with AI
  • Longitudinal research that follows participants as their relationships with AI evolve
  • Design synthesis that translates lived experience into actionable frameworks for ethical, symbiotic AI

This is not an academic exercise—it’s an urgent response to a global shift in cognition, authorship, and trust. We are building a data set not of usage, but of meaning.

Methodology Overview

The Chronicle operates through three concurrent research tracks:

  1. Internet-Based Corpus: Weekly AI-assisted harvesting and human curation of first-person AI stories from forums, blogs, and social media.
  2. One-Off & Episodic Interviews: In-depth conversations with professionals across domains who reflect on disruption, integration, and identity change.
  3. Longitudinal Study: Participants tracked over time through journaling, interviews, and interaction logs—mapped as adaptive “Threads.”

All stories are tagged using our custom schema: Cognitive Permeability (CP), Identity Coupling (IC), and the Five Thresholds of Synthetic Adaptation (e.g., Recognition, Blurring, Fracture).


Join The Chronicle

We seek thoughtful observers who are experiencing this transition firsthand and are willing to document their journey with depth and honesty. You might be a good fit if:

  • You've found yourself fundamentally reconsidering your professional identity or creative practice due to AI
  • You're actively navigating how to integrate or resist AI tools in your work or personal life
  • You've experienced moments of both profound possibility and deep uncertainty about your role in an AI-augmented world
  • You're able to articulate your emotional and intellectual journey through this transition
  • You're willing to engage in regular reflection and documentation over an extended period
  • You're motivated by participating in a study that aims to create a better future for humans with AI

What Participation Involves

As a chronicler in this project, you'll:

  • Share your ongoing experiences through structured journaling and periodic conversations
  • Participate in small group discussions with others navigating similar transitions
  • Contribute to building a historical record that will help future generations understand this moment
  • Receive guidance in developing your capacity for deep observation and reflection

The Exchange

While this is an unpaid role, you'll be:

  • Part of a curated community experiencing and documenting this historic transition
  • Contributing to a significant historical archive
  • Developing skills in observation and analysis that will serve you through this transition
  • Gaining insights from others' experiences that may help illuminate your own path

Important Note

We recognize that sharing personal experiences requires trust. As stewards of these stories, we commit to:

  • Protecting your privacy and right to control how your story is shared
  • Creating a supportive environment for honest reflection
  • Ensuring that your contributions help others navigating similar challenges
  • Regular sharing of insights and patterns we observe across experiences

How to Express Your Interest

If you're interested in joining The Chronicle, please send us an email and tell us a bit about yourself. We're excited to hear from you.

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