🔗 Share this article

This past summer, I found myself navigating in gridlocked traffic on the scorching streets of a southern French city. At an intersection, my companion in the passenger seat suggested a right turn toward a famous spot for fish soup. However, the digital guide on my phone instructed us to continue straight. Fatigued and in a stifling car, I heeded the algorithm's directive. Minutes later, we were stuck at a roadwork site.

A minor incident, perhaps. But one that encapsulates a central question of our era, where technology permeates nearly every facet of existence: whom do we trust to a greater degree – other people and our personal instincts, or the algorithm?

The Enlightenment's Promise and A Contemporary Backslide

The influential German philosopher Immanuel Kant famously described the Enlightenment as "man's release from its self-imposed immaturity." This state, he argued, "is the incapacity to use one's own understanding without guidance from an external source." For ages, that directing force for society was frequently the priest, the king, or the feudal lord – entities purporting to speak for divine will. To comprehend phenomena like changing seasons, people sought answers in religion. In shaping the fabric of society, from economics to love, faith served as the main compass.

“Sapere aude!” or “Have courage to use your reason!”

Kant maintained that humans had the ability to think rationally. They simply lacked the boldness to employ it. With revolutions in America and France, a fresh era emerged: logic would supplant superstition, and the intellect, liberated from authority, would become the engine of advancement and a better world.

Now, 250 years later, one might wonder if we are slipping back into a form of dependency. An app suggesting a direction is merely the start. AI risks becoming our new "other" – a unseen overseer that influences our choices and actions. We are in danger of relinquishing the hard-won autonomy to think independently – and now, not to deities or rulers, but to lines of code.

The Rapid Rise and Subtle Dangers of Algorithmic Reliance

ChatGPT debuted only in 2022, and yet a global survey found that an overwhelming majority of people had used AI in the preceding half-year. Whether deciding on a breakup or selecting a vote, individuals are increasingly turning to algorithms for counsel. Data suggests a significant portion of user queries relate to non-work topics. Even more intriguing than our reliance on AI for advice is what happens when we allow it express for us. Writing is now among the top uses for tools like ChatGPT, just behind everyday tasks. The late American author Joan Didion once remarked, “I write entirely to find out what I am thinking.” What occurs when we stop composing? Do we lose that path?

Worryingly, some evidence hints the outcome may be yes. A study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used electroencephalography to observe the cognitive activity of essay writers who had access to AI, traditional search engines, or nothing. Those who could use AI showed the least cognitive engagement and had trouble accurately recalling their own work. Perhaps most troubling was that over time, individuals in the AI group grew increasingly reliant, pasting large sections of text.

“Inertia and fear,” Kant wrote, “are the reasons why so great a proportion of men … remain in perpetual nonage.”

Of course, AI's attraction lies in its efficiency. It saves time, reduces effort and – critically – offers a new method to offload accountability. In his 1941 book, Escape from Freedom, the German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm proposed that the rise of fascism could be partly explained by a preference to give up autonomy in exchange for the comforting security of obedience. AI presents a modern method of surrendering the burden of having to decide for oneself.

The Opacity Dilemma: Faith Over Reason

AI's primary draw is its capacity to perform tasks beyond our minds – analyzing oceans of data at unprecedented speed. Stuck in the car in Marseille, this was, ultimately, why I chose to believe the app over my companion (a decision she took as an affront). With knowledge of all the data, certainly the algorithm had superior insight – or so I thought.

The fundamental problem is that AI operates as a black box. It produces answers, but not always fostering human comprehension. We cannot fully grasp how AI reaches its conclusions – even its programmers admit this. Nor can we check its reasoning against transparent standards. So when we follow AI's advice, we are not being led by logic. We are back in the realm of faith. In dubio pro machina: when in doubt, trust the machine – that could be our 21st-century guiding principle.

Using Without Losing: The Essential Challenge

AI can be a powerful tool for mankind in rational inquiry. It can help medical research, liberate us from tedious tasks, or handle administrative chores – duties that demand little thought and are unfulfilling. This is beneficial. But Kant and his peers did not champion reason over faith just so humans could optimize chores or have more leisure. Critical thinking was not just about efficiency – it was a discipline of liberty and human emancipation.

Human thought is often chaotic and error-prone, but it forces us to argue, to question, to challenge concepts – and to recognize the limits of our own knowledge. It fosters self-reliance, both individually and collectively. For Kant, the exercise of reason was never solely about acquiring knowledge; it was about enabling people to become authors of their own destinies, and to oppose domination. It was about creating a ethical society grounded in the common foundation of reason and debate, rather than unquestioning acceptance.

With all the advantages AI brings, the paramount challenge remains: how can we harness its potential of advanced capability without eroding human reasoning, the bedrock of the Enlightenment and of liberal democracy themselves? That may be one of the defining questions of our century. It is a question we must strive not to delegate to the machine.