Summary

 Being Human in 2035

Essays- April 2025

Source: ITDF Webpage

Gary Bolles
AI Presents an Opportunity to Liberate Humanity but New Norms in Human-Machine Communication Seem More Likely to Diminish Human-to-Human Connections

Noshir Contractor
AI Will Fundamentally Reshape How and What We Think, Relate to and Understand Ourselves; It Will Also Raise Important Questions About Human Agency and Authenticity

Vint Cerf
Expect Significant Impact by 2035: Imperfect Systems Will Be Routinely Used By People and AIs, Creating Potential for Considerable Turmoil and Problems With Unwarranted Trust

Esther Dyson
We Must Train People to be Self-Aware, to Understand Their Own Motivations and to Understand that AIs’ Goals Are Those of the Organizations and Systems That Control Them

Dave Edwards
We Can Be Transformed If the Integration of Synthetic and Organic Intelligence Serves Human Flourishing in All its Unpredictable, Creative and Collective Forms

Charles Ess
The Next Generation May Be One of No-Skilling in Regard to Essential Human Virtue Ethics’

Tracey Follows
By 2035, ‘Authenticity is De Facto Dead’: Change Could Lead to Multiplicity of the Self, One-Way Relationships and Isolation Through Personalized ‘Realities’

Maggie Jackson
AIs’ Founders Are Designing AI to Make its Actions Servant to its Aims With As Little Human Interference as Possible, Undermining Human Discernment

Giacomo Mazzone
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

Jerry Michalski
The Blurring of Societal and Cultural Boundaries Is Shifting the Essence of Being Human in Many Ways, Further Disrupting Human Relationships and Mental Health

Danil Mikhailov
Respect for Human Expertise and Authority Will Be Undermined, Trust Destroyed, and Utility Will Displace ‘Truth’ at a Time When Mass Unemployment Decimates Identity and Security

Alexandra Samuel
The Future Could Be Astonishing and Inspiring If Humans Co-Evolve With Open, Ethical AI. But That Vision for 2035 Can’t Be Achieved Without Change

Paul Saffo
By 2035, Synthetic Sentiences Will Vastly Outnumber Us; We Will Reinvent Ourselves, Our Communities and Our Cultures

Eric Saund
Human Competence Will Atrophy; AIs Will Clash Like Gladiators in Law, Business and Politics; Religious Movements Will Worship Deity Avatars; Trust Will be Bought and Sold

Anil Seth
Dangers Arise as AI becomes Humanlike. How Do We Retain a Sense of Human Dignity? They Will Become Self-Aware and ‘Inner Lights of Consciousness Will Come On for Them’

Evelyne Tauchnitz
We May Lose Our Human Unpredictability in a World in Which Algorithms Dictate the Terms of Engagement; These Systems Are Likely to Lead to the Erosion of Freedom and Authenticity

Nell Watson
By 2035, Supernormal Stimuli Engineered to Trigger Humans and Individually Calibrated AI Companions Will Profoundly Reshape Human Experience

David Weinberger
AIs Can Help Humans Really See the World, Teach Us About Ourselves, Help Us Discover New Truths and – Ideally – Inspire Us to Explore in New Ways

Rabia Yasmeen
Humans Can Shift Their Focus From Deepening Their Intelligence to Achieving True Enlightenment in an Age in Which AI Handles Their Day-to-Day Needs

Amy Zalman
‘We Must Have the Courage to Establish Human Values in Code, Ethical Precepts, Policy and Regulation’

Lior Zalmanson
Humans Must Design Organizational and Social Structures to Maintain the Capacity to Shape Their Own Individual and Collective Future or Cede Unprecedented Control to Those in Power

Impact of AI by 2040

Essays- Fall 2023

Stephen Abram
It may take an existential threat to knock us off the pedestal of narrow critical thinking on AI

Greg Adamson
It is unlikely that human institutions are ready or willing to properly adapt to this change

Stephan Adelson
There is likely to be an AI-driven war over people’s minds and emotions

Lene Rachel Anderson
We are not creating the institutions that could protect us against our own invention

Micah Altman
The problems raised by AI cannot be solved simply by bolting guardrails onto existing systems

Walid Al-Saqaf
AI’s success will require maintaining a delicate balance between its vast potential and the challenges it introduces

Victoria Baines
AI advances will bring the metaverse up to speed and accelerate 5G/6G and smart cities

Richard Barke
The forward momentum of AI is probably far too powerful to restrain or direct

John Battelle
Who will the AIs work for? Who controls the data they work with?

Avi Bar-Zeev
AI is the most-persuasive technology ever, and the most dangerous in greedy human hands

Christine Boese
Climate change, housing/refugee and economic inequity crises will play a huge role in 2040

Henry Brady
AI threatens to require society to redefine ‘what it means to be a person’ in the digital realm

David Bray
Focus on how to co-exist with super-empowered, transnational organizations and individuals

Tim Bray
Capitalism limits the focus on AI’s long-term impact on people

Dennis Bushnell
In the future, humans could possibly become cyborgs, merging with machines

To learn about the essays below, go the ITDF website and search by name.

Nir Buras
Human-machine rules should achieve the reality we want for our children and grandchildren

Mary Chayko
People may not even notice the losses they are suffering as the world is infused with AI

Barry Chudakov
Thought is no longer generated from solo insights; it is the end product of a shared brain

Jamais Cascio
The questions are, ‘Can humans say “no” to AI, and can AI say “no” to humans?’

Chuck Cosson
Our dilemma: ‘We won’t know what problems are salient until it may be too late’

Rosalie Day
We will be more self-absorbed, post-truth will worsen and our sense of purpose will be diminished

Sara “Meg” Davis
Inequalities and human rights issues will be amplified, rights experts must raise concerns

Judith Donath
Such good friends? Digital agents are likely to turn users into unknowing ‘agents of the machine’

Michael G. Dyer
Synthetic agents (‘synthetes’) will be mass produced and create a ‘privacy nightmare’

Esther Dyson
Focus on the long-term welfare of people and society: Ask not what AI can do but what WE can ask it to do

Devin Fidler
If we design our institutional ‘operating systems’ correctly we can realize a future of unprecedented progress and well-being

Tracey Follows
What happens to humans’ authenticity and autonomy when they are augmented with AI?

Jerome Glenn
Augmented intelligence can inspire humanity to significantly upgrade everything

Marina Gorbis
We can create a great future, but it will require new infrastructure, policies and norms

Jonathan Grudin
Will AI amplify or reverse trajectories we are now riding?

Michael Haines
AI will reshape everything, improving people’s lives and the performance of institutions

John Havens
Which metrics of success will win the day – growth and productivity or finding joy and love?

Seth Herd
Outside of job losses, narrow AI will be mostly beneficial; this may change when AGI arrives in 3 to 15 years

Terri Horton
Hyper-efficiency and productivity due to AI will accelerate innovation at scale by 2040

Frank Kaufmann
Imagining that AI can replace humans ‘arises not from wrong views about tech, but from wrong views about being human’

David J. Krieger
Should AIs be required to get a ‘driver’s license’ that certifies them as socially competent?

Jonathan Kolber
A ‘celebration society’ will emerge as abundance becomes civilization’s natural state

Chris Labash
‘AI’s ubiquity will tempt us to give up ownership, control and responsibility’

Larry Lannom
We’re in a world in which misinformation can feed off prior hallucinations

Sam Lehman-Wilzig
Economic, employment and education systems must be massively restructured

Leah A. Lievrouw
The fight to gain first-mover and network effects advantages is on. Will AI meet expectations?

Sonia Livingstone
To flourish, humans must have agency and efficacy; our children may never forgive us

Liza Loop
Humans’ scarcity mindset inhibits our willingness to embrace abundance

Peter Lunenfeld 
Communal, civic and constitutional guidelines should be exercised over artificial intellgence

Clifford Lynch
We will be better off overall in 2040 if general purpose AI does not progress much, though social recalibration will be disruptive

Giacomo Mazzone
What will humans become if they lose the agora and the ability to reason with no assistance?

Sean McGregor
AI requires new technology, social institutions and social conventions

Lee Warren McKnight
‘A new priesthood or profession’ of certified ethical AI developers will emerge

Bitange Ndemo
We will identify AI risks and take steps now to mitigate them

Beth Simone Noveck
Proactive moves to promote the use of AI to enhance democracy are crucial to mitigating risk

Kunle Olorundare
If people don’t harmonize on AI, the future will not bring out the best in humanity

Andy Opel
Positive outcomes must be imagined before they can become reality: Aim for human flourishing

Aviv Ovadya
Reinventing democracies’ infrastructures can cut the likelihood of dystopia by 85%

Raymond Perrault
Given AI’s great potential, preventing it from turning into the sorcerer’s apprentice is the primary challenge

Lorrayne Porciuncula
Agile governance must meet the dynamic challenges of future complex adaptive systems

Kelly Quinn
AIs’ talent for managing the transit of information, people and vehicles will reshape our lives

Chen Qiufan
The boundary between the organic and artificial, the sentient and insentient will erode

Alexa Raad
Blurred ‘truth’ and the erosion of trust are likely to deliver AI’s most significant impact

Chris Riley
AI seems magical now, but it really offers only flawed and limited promise

Mauro D. Rios
Humanity must take action to assure individuals’ rights, dignity and superiority over AI

Louis Rosenberg
AI systems are being taught to ‘master the game of humans’

Melissa Sassi
Human-centered AI can succeed only if it includes all humans

Eric Saund
2040 could see a graceful handoff to a nearly mythical world run by AI … or not

William Schrader
Advances in artificial intelligence will add greater velocity to the vector of humanity’s troubles

Daniel S. Schiff
The influence of AI between now and 2040 will be crosscutting and wide-ranging

Ben Shneiderman

We aim to assure that AI supports human self-efficacy, creativity and connectedness

Ray Schroeder
Evidence-based decision-making will lead to compassionate policies and practices

Toby Shulruff
The voices of the voiceless will continue to be underrepresented in AI systems

Katindi Sivi
‘It is imperative to start questioning AI and big data assumptions, values and biases’

Wolfgang Slany
‘We may lose the exceptionalism of biological life’; AI could be granted human rights

Chris Swiatek
Humans are being moved out of ‘the loop’; they might land next in the metaverse

Evelyne A. Tauchnitz
The AI-fueled transition challenges the way we live and experience everything

Brad Templeton
AIs should be trained on ‘Lennonism’: All you need is love

Jaak Tepandi
By 2040, many people will live better but aggressive AI systems will proliferate as a human/AI symbiosis emerges

Charalambos Tsekeris
Don’t underestimate the dangers of unintended consequences embraced out of ignorance

Maja Vujovic
Maybe we should substitute the word ’Enter’ on our keyboards with ’Please,’ just in case…

Amy Sample Ward
‘Technology is not neutral, and unless we build it with inclusive intention we cannot change its course’

Pamela Wisniewski
‘We need to allow room for human discretion and struggle,’ important parts of being human

Michael Wollowski
Will our future resemble the fearful outcome in the E.M. Forster essay ‘The Machine Stops’?

Ethan Zuckerman
As AI becomes ordinary, we must understand the presumptions we are encoding