How Artificial Intelligence Constrains the Human Experience

Artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies are transforming many consumption activities, powering breakthroughs that expand the human experience by enhancing human capabilities, performance, and creativity. While this explains the consumer enthusiasm and rapid adoption of these technologies, AI systems can also have the opposite effect: reducing and constraining the range of experiences that are available to consumers. This paper examines the mechanisms through which AI can constrain the human experience, considering individual, interpersonal, and societal processes. The authors' analysis uncovers a complex interplay between the advantages of AI and its inadvertent negative repercussions, which potentially restrict human autonomy, self-identity, relational dynamics, and social behavior. In this paper, the authors propose three different mechanisms at the core of these constraining forces: parametric reductionism, agency transference and regulated expression. The authors' exploration of these mechanisms highlights the risks connected to system design and points to questions and implications for future researchers and policy makers.