Expect More Isolation and Polarization, a Loss of Cognitive Depth, and a Muddling of ‘Facts’ and ‘Truth’ That Undermines Trust and Our Capacity for Moral Judgment
Key Points:
Giacomo Mazzone is global project director for the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. This essay is his written response in January 2025 to the question, “How might expanding interactions between humans and AI affect what many people view today as ‘core human traits and behaviors’?” It was published in the 2025 research study “ Being Human in 2035. ”
“I see four main impacts of artificial intelligence on digitally connected people’s daily lives. In brief, they are the: loss of mental capacities; reduction of social interactions with other humans; reduction of the ability to distinguish true from false; and a deepening of social divides between countries, and, within each country, among the ‘connected’ and the ‘unconnected.’ I will explain the four in more detail.
“ One: Loss of cognitive capacities and skills in fields in which AI outperforms humans
Just as the pocket calculator has resulted in the weakening of people’s mathematic calculation capacities, we have to expect that the same will happen in future to other human abilities in the age of AI. There is more proof: as GPS navigation has resulted in a weakening of humans’ sense of orientation; uses of the infotainment and gaming spaces on the Internet have reduced people’s wiliness to seek out facts on issues and develop the knowledge necessary to everyone working together to contribute to a healthy society.
Memory, numeracy, organizational capabilities, moral judgment – all of these will be diminished. AI will be tasked to remember for us. It will keep track of everything. We just respond as it tells us to. … The automation of tasks is already impacting society due to the reduction in previously necessary personal interaction. Social skills and confidence are lost when they are not practiced regularly. … AI will be used by many people to take shortcuts to making moral and ethical decisions while leaving them in the dark about how those decisions are made.
“Memory, numeracy, organizational capabilities, moral judgment – all of these will be diminished. AI will be tasked to remember for us. It will keep track of everything, from our daily events agenda to the work to be done. We just respond as it tells us to. Numeracy will no longer be considered a necessary human skill because AI will autonomously execute even complex operations such as statistics and calculation of probabilities and make data-based decisions for us without needing to ‘show the math.’
“And we will not need to strategize in order to organize our lives because AI will be faster and more accurate than us in organizing our spaces, our agenda, our planning, our strategies, our communication with others. All of this is likely to result in the diminishment of our capacity for moral judgment. AI will be used by many people to take shortcuts to making moral and ethical decisions while leaving them in the dark about how those decisions are made.
AI is already leading to the fragmentation and dehumanization of work. Just as industrial jobs done by robots are broken down into step-by-step automatable tasks, intellectual and creative work is being programmed and assigned to AIs. The work of Uber drivers is already time-regulated, controlled and coordinated by an algorithm, with no humans in the loop. … We don’t need to get out in the world and interact with others anymore. … We can expect to see more and more people suffering from agoraphobia.
“ Two: Reduction of social interactions
AI is already leading to the fragmentation and dehumanization of work. Just as industrial jobs done by robots are broken down into step-by-step automatable tasks, intellectual and creative work is being programmed and assigned to AIs. The work of Uber drivers is already time-regulated, controlled and coordinated by an algorithm, with no humans in the loop. The automation of tasks is already impacting society due to the reduction in previously necessary personal interaction. Social skills and confidence are lost when they are not practiced regularly.
“Education and learning processes are being automated, individualized and tailor-made based on individual students’ needs. People no longer need to gather with others in real-world social settings under the supervision of a teacher, a human guide, to gain knowledge and social proof that they have met requirements.
“We don’t need to get out in the world and interact with others anymore. Shopping is totally different. Most time spent seeking products, learning about them and making purchases today is generally done online. Movie-going, previously requiring the investment of time in the real world traveling to a cinema and gathering with others in real-world social setting, has been replaced by the bingeing of entertainment at home in front of a giant networked television in the living room.
“Big public events and spectacles may survive in 2035, but we can expect to see more and more people suffering from agoraphobia. The ‘hikikomori,’ an uptick of cases of severe social withdrawal, has been recognized as emerging in Japan over the last decade. It could soon become more common in all connected countries. The realm of emotional relationships such as those leading to romance and finding life partners and celebrating and supporting family and close friends has long been colonized by algorithms. Couples don’t meet in church or spend most of their dating time together in real-world social settings. And the celebration of loved ones who have passed away plus many other such deeply emotional occasions are being carried out virtually instead of in the reality.
“More of the activities of humans’ intermediary bodies, such as political parties, trade unions, professional associations and social movements have been replaced by virtual experiences that somehow meet their goals such as online campaigns to support this or that objective, crowdfunding, ‘likes’ campaigns and the use of ‘influencers.’ The disappearance of face-to-face human gatherings like these will complete the frame and accelerate this process.
What happens to society when there is no more commonly shared truth? When the ‘news and information’ the public receives … is no longer based on true facts but instead we see fake news or unfounded opinions used to shape perceptions to achieve manipulation of outcomes? … A primary sub-consequence of all of the change in human perception and cognition could be the reduction of the capacity for moral judgment. When every ‘fact’ is relativized and open to doubt the capacity for indignation is likely to be reduced.
“ Three: Reduction of the ability to distinguish true from false
One of the most important concerns is the loss of factual, trusted, commonly shared human knowledge. The digital disruption of society’s institution-provided foundational knowledge – the diminishment of the 20 th century’s best scientific research, newspapers, news magazines, TV and radio news gathered and presented to the broader public by reputable organizations for example – is the result of algorithmic manipulation of the public’s interest by social media and other ML and AI platforms. These information platforms are built to entertain and manipulate people for marketing and profit and are rife with misinformation and disinformation. Gone is the commonly shared ‘electronic agora’ that characterized the 20th century.
“The ‘personalized media’ enabled by ML and AI leads to filter bubbles and social polarization. It allows tech companies to monetize the attention and personal data of each person using their platforms. It allows anyone anywhere to spread persuasive, often misleading information or lies, into the social stream in order to influence an election, to kill an idea, to create a movement to sway public opinion in favor of a trend and to create public scapegoats.
A primary sub-consequence of all of the change in humans’ perception and cognition could be the reduction of the capacity for moral judgment. When every ‘fact’ is relativized and open to doubt the capacity for indignation is likely to be reduced. There are no examples in human history of societies that have survived in the absence of shared truth for too long.
“All modern democracies have been built around commonly shared truths about which everybody can have and express different opinions. What happens to society when there is no more commonly shared truth? Already today most of the most widely viewed ‘news and information’ the public sees about climate change, pandemics, nation-state disagreements, regulation, elections and so on is no longer based in true facts. Instead we see fake news or unfounded opinions often used to shape perceptions to achieve manipulation of outcomes? The use of AI for deepfakes and more will accelerate this process. This destructive trend could be irreversible because strong financial and political interests profit from it in many ways.
“A primary sub-consequence of all of the change in humans’ perception and cognition could be the reduction of the capacity for moral judgment. When every ‘fact’ is relativized and open to doubt the capacity for indignation is likely to be reduced. There are no examples in human history of societies that have survived in the absence of shared truth for too long.”
“ Four: A deepening of social divides
The AI revolution will not affect all of the people in all the regions and countries of the world in the same way. Some will be far behind because they are too poor, because they don’t have the skills, they do not have the necessary human, technological and financial resources. This will deepen the already dramatic existing digital divide.
“The impact of AI will present enormous possibilities on our lives, in fact. People everywhere will have the opportunity to use ready-made tools that can simply incorporate AI in operating system updates to mobile phones and in search engines, financial services apps and so forth. We will create AI applications adapted to particular fields of work, research and performance. But, at least at first, by far the greatest majority of humans – even in some of the more-developed societies – will not have the tools, the skills, the ability or the desire to tap into AI to serve their needs.
“By 2035 it is likely that only a minority of people in the world will be able to implement exponentially the performance of AI in their lives.”
**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.”
Summary:
“I see four main impacts of artificial intelligence on digitally connected people’s daily lives. In brief, they are the: loss of mental capacities; reduction of social interactions with other humans;...