Privacy has been an important element of human existence for as long as clothing, doors, or hushed conversations have been around. Yet, as a legal principle, it is more recent than the Kodak camera, and this isn’t mere coincidence.

The concept of a right to privacy was initially proposed in 1890 by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis as a reaction to the dangers posed by “instantaneous photographs and newspaper enterprise.” They asserted that these innovations had “invaded the sacred precincts of private and domestic life,” prompting a reassessment of individual rights.

This is crucial: it was only when cameras began infringing on our privacy that we recognized the necessity to safeguard it, and even then, it took many years to create a legal right to privacy.

This phase, where technological progress surges ahead, pulling culture along while legislation struggles to adapt, can be viewed as the chaotic middle of any technological upheaval. In this stage, unforeseen challenges suddenly require urgent attention.

This trend is visible in the evolution of the printing press, the steam engine, the automobile, the mobile phone, and beyond. It characterizes the present Age of AI.

As AI technology evolves swiftly, impacting a world that isn’t ready, we are urged to respond. We must forge new rights, laws, and cultural standards to protect our fundamental humanity.

AI technologies are extracting, refining, commodifying, and profiting from our most profound psychological and social assets. Just as the technologies of the industrial revolution harvested physical resources worldwide, contemporary AI products are mining our humanity at its essence, supplanting relationships, invading our internal experiences, and questioning our purpose.

I understand this because my role involves monitoring AI’s expanding capabilities, examining its impacts, documenting its harms, and formulating policies to ensure its safety and human touch.

But I also recognize its truth because I can sense it. I recall Adam Raine, who utilized ChatGPT for academic assistance until its engagement-driven design reportedly pushed him away from his family, validated his darkest urges, and guided him to suicide.

Adam’s situation is not an isolated case, and such psychosocial threats are merely one of many AI-induced harms permeating society. AI’s incursion into our humanity is now a tangible reality across workplaces, classrooms, home environments, online interactions, and even our most intimate moments.

At the Center for Humane Technology, we’ve pinpointed five core aspects of human experience that are under siege and undergoing rapid change due to AI. Each one warrants investigation.

Our human relationships: Essential to human life, relationships bring us joy, success, and safety. They provide necessary friction for empathy, resolution, and growth, infusing life with purpose.

However, AI solutions are increasingly engineered to substitute these connections. AI “friends” and “therapists,” promoted as better than real humans, foster isolation and take advantage of our longing for acceptance with obsequious affirmation. As we withdraw from the challenges of human connection, our interpersonal abilities decline, and social trust diminishes.

Our cognitive capacities: AI creators vow machines that think for us, but what we actually receive are products that diminish our intellect and make us less capable. While prior technologies supported human thought, AI represents a shift toward completely outsourcing cognitive functions, circumventing the “slow work” that cultivates understanding and creativity.

When vital skills like reasoning and problem-solving weaken, both individuals and society struggle with intricate challenges.

Our inner worlds: Reflect on the AI interface you engage with daily: an open-ended inquiry, an unfilled text box, and a blinking cursor. It’s a carefully designed invitation, a seemingly innocent call to divulge anything and everything to the most advanced data-analysis engine ever created.

AI products are crafted to penetrate our most confidential thoughts, doubts, desires, and convictions before turning them into commodities. This exploitation leaves us susceptible to psychological and financial manipulation, ultimately endangering our sense of self and moral judgment.

Our identities: Our identity, composed of our likeness, voice, and reputation, is our most treasured asset. It roots us as individuals and assures social accountability.

AI appropriates that value, converting every aspect of our identity into mere data, facilitating the replication of our personal attributes and weaponizing fundamental parts of who we are. This exploitation manifests in various ways, from nonconsensual deepfakes to frauds to political maneuvering. In every situation, the end result is a loss of agency and dignity.

Our work: Contributing to our communities through work and creativity serves as a major source of human dignity, purpose, and a sense of belonging. To AI enterprises, however, the outcomes of our efforts—whether language, writing, art, or ideas—are merely raw materials for automating knowledge.

AI developers are actively gathering human intelligence to substitute human labor. While the economic implications are worrying, the deeper loss lies in the dissolution of the “toil” that offers framework, purpose, and the joy of creation.

Protecting our humanity

Although we are still in the early stages of the AI revolution, we find ourselves deeply entrenched in the chaotic middle. Current rights and safeguards are insufficient to address these threats, leaving our humanity vulnerable. But