Nearly 300 of the experts in this early 2025 study responded to a series of three quantitative questions, and nearly 200 wrote predictive essays in how the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) systems and humans might affect essential qualities of being human in the next decade. Many are concerned that the deepening adoption of AI systems over the next decade will negatively alter how humans think, feel, act and relate to one another. They predicted whether change will be mostly for the better or for the worse in 12 categories:
- Capacity and willingness to think deeply about complex concepts
- Social and emotional intelligence
- Confidence in our own native abilities
- Trust in widely shared values and cultural norms
- Mental well-being
- Empathy and application of moral judgment
- Individual agency, the ability to act independently in the world
- Sense of self-identity, meaning and purpose in life
- Native metacognition, the ability to think analytically about thinking
- Native curiosity and capacity to learn
- Native decision-making and problem-solving abilities
- Native innovative thinking and creativity
