This post is Part 1 of a series.
I’m currently reading a fascinating book about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on human intimacy,1 which I heard about during the last training event I attended, which was about AI and the psyche. The last three media requests I’ve received were for comments about various aspects of young people’s use of AI, or AI as a substitute for a human therapist. The most recent presentation I delivered was about adolescent identity in the age of AI, and next I’ll be speaking on a panel about the same. Many of the threads on my social media feed are about AI, too—people loving and learning about it or vehemently rallying against it and arguing that it’s not for them.
So, why is everybody talking about AI?
AI is not new; it’s older than me and older than many of you. The first use of the term “artificial intelligence” can be traced back to the 1950s, when Alan Turing asked people to spot the difference between machine and human intelligence. But it really came to the fore with the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. Gen Alpha, the first of whom were born in 2010, are the first generation to be “AI-natives,” but it’s Gen Z, born a decade earlier, who are the most active and conscious users of AI.
How Gen Z Interacts With AI
Gen Z do things differently from older generations. They’re more likely to “AI it” rather than “Google it,” using long, highly contextual, goal-based queries instead of keywords to help with personal and work-related cognitive tasks. They are more likely than older generations to turn to AI to offload relationship dilemmas, too. Many (about 75 percent) use AI as emotional, social, and sexual companions. According to one study, almost half of Gen Z users have formed a “meaningful relationship” with an AI companion and a quarter believe it could replace a human partner.2 Gen Z are also using AI to search for, and in some cases substitute for, a therapist.
I’ll bet you’re using AI, too, but probably not so intentionally as your Gen Z contemporaries. You’re using it to track your way from A to B with apps like Google Maps and Waze. You’re using it to binge-watch that box set on Netflix, and it’s why you receive notifications such as: “Because you watched that, we think you might like this.” Ditto Spotify. Ditto YouTube. You hovered over one funny cat video, and now you’re inundated with them? AI did that. Every online shopping platform you’ve opened has tracked your browsing history so it can tempt you about what to buy next, which is also feeding the algorithm that influences your social media feed. You asked Alexa or Siri or Claude about the weather in Brazil and Googled how to keep your aspidistra alive, and now exotic holidays and houseplants are popping up all over every app you open. That’s no coincidence; that’s AI.
How AI Shapes Preferences, Behaviors, and the 'Algorithmic Self'
AI systems map our preferences, patterns, and choices, and they influence them, too, creating a sort of “algorithmic self.” Offloading memory, attention, and decision-making to AI risks flattening individuality and reducing authentic self-expression. Tools like mood-trackers, personalised feeds, and AI assistants shape how we understand our internal emotional landscapes and shape our behaviour. Am I buying another personalised keepsake because of sentimentality or because AI has seduced me into it? Do I feel emotionally depleted on certain days because of hormone fluctuations or because my AI mood tracker told me I would?
The worry is that the “algorithmic self” shapes the human psyche without us even realising, and that reliance on AI during adolescence, when the self hasn’t yet fully developed, could even pose a threat to individuation. Development of the self relies heavily on friction, trial and error, and navigating the unknown. By replacing these struggles with optimised, predictable convenience, AI risks turning active self-discovery into passive consumption. It therefore challenges the very concept of “self” by shifting human identity from an internal creation to a data-driven one.
Does this mean AI is bad? I don’t think so. But I do think we need to become more conscious users rather than merely passive consumers. And I think we need to remember that every search, scroll, view, listen, chat, and journey becomes data that will shape what we do next. Hopefully AI will lead you back here, to my next blog post, where I’m sure I’ll be talking about AI some more.