I seldom designate an article as a recommended reading. I typically make FYI posts about new research I finding interesting in my small corner of the larger sandbox of psychology…more as FYI alerts. I break with my typical FYI research alert blogging behavior for this article by Dr. John D. Mayer. I recommend reading Mayer’s thought provoking article—especially since it is open source and can be downloaded and read for free (click here to access).
Why? Because it is a well-reasoned “thought piece” about the many unanswered questions regarding the potential positive and negative impact of AI on humans, in this case, human personalities and cognition. I’m relatively new to the fast-moving AI movement and, as an educational psychologist, I’m interested in how certain cognitive abilities (especially CHC cognitive abilities) may become “skilled” or “deskilled” with greater reliance on AI.
People change as they form new habits, encounter new situations, and mature. As people interact with artificial intelligence (AI), their personalities will change, including their emotional responses to AI, their cognition, and their self-understanding. The present theoretical integration draws together empirical studies of how personality changes in response to technological innovations, and to AI in particular. Research studies reviewed were selected according to their relevance and quality. Some key points include that (a) as AI becomes increasingly human-like, and humans represent themselves online, humans and bots become increasingly difficult to distinguish; (b) as people rely on AI as a coach to guide them in interpersonal interactions, they may become socially deskilled; and, (c) as they rely on AI for work tasks, they may become cognitively deskilled in key areas. These changes in personality will entail an overall shift in people’s self-concepts. Psychologists can track these changes by classifying people’s types of AI interactions and relating them to relevant personality attributes.
