When Artificial Intelligence Breaks the Frame of Meaning

"Artificial intelligence (AI) is rewriting the conditions under which our cognition forms meaning. This disruption isn't merely economic and extends beyond the "job loss" perspective that is commonplace today. It is the widening mismatch between human intelligence and machine fluency. Four domains-meaning, value, knowledge, emotion -once anchored our human reality. When they shift together, our continuity of understanding begins to fall apart."

"Human thought generates meaning by choosing. And that means for us to commit. We collapse potential paths and accept the cost of selecting one. A thought becomes real when we decide what it is not. AI doesn't collapse possibility; it expands endlessly. One prompt can output a thousand plausible outputs without ever requiring a decision. And this changes something subtle yet foundational as humans begin to confuse the "comfort" of linguistic abundance with the "work" of interpretation."

"When volume masquerades as depth, our connection between purpose and interpretation begins to unravel. This gap isn't some sort of philosophical hyperbole. I think it begins to alter how people understand personal identity, belief, disagreement, and even the curious idea of "conclusion." Meaning, once earned through the internal friction of choice, can now appear to emerge without effort. And that illusion is disruptive, if not corrosive."

Artificial intelligence is rewriting conditions under which human cognition forms meaning, creating a widening mismatch between human intelligence and machine fluency. Four domains—meaning, value, knowledge, and emotion—once anchored human reality; when they shift together, continuity of understanding fractures. Human meaning requires choosing and commitment, collapsing possibilities and accepting the cost of selection. AI expands possibility instead, producing many plausible outputs without requiring decisions, which encourages confusing linguistic abundance with interpretive work. That confusion alters personal identity, belief, disagreement, and the notion of conclusion, undermining the lived connection between work, skill, and narrative identity.

Read at Psychology Today