The Human in the Shadow of AI

Humanity is standing at one of the most radical thresholds in its history with AI!

AI is not just taking over tasks. It’s transforming our decisions and our emotions. It is also changing our understanding of what it means to be human. In the shadow of code, we are searching for a new definition of ourselves.

This transformation also expands the rhetoric of sustainability. The sustainability of human mental, emotional, and ethical existence is now emerging as a major concern.

The Rise of the Algorithmic Class

We now know this for certain: AI’s impact on the labor market will be sharp. According to McKinsey’s 2025 report, AI technologies won’t just increase productivity—they’re projected to contribute up to $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy.

In countries like India, call center automation has rapidly advanced. Today, nearly 80% of operations in these centers are run by AI-powered systems. The same transformation is taking hold in the U.S. and Europe—particularly in white-collar fields like finance, law, and customer service. In the U.S., judges have even begun using ChatGPT suggestions as a supplementary tool in legal decision-making.

This shift effectively reverses Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital. It’s no longer about what you know—it’s about how efficiently you can use algorithms. Human labor, both physical and cognitive, is being pushed to the margins. Rising in its place is the algorithmic class: those who write the code, manage the data, and enhance the systems.

Education Surrenders to AI

As AI enters every facet of life, education is no exception. South Korea has announced plans to integrate AI-powered digital teachers into its primary schools.

But here’s the critical point: this is not merely a pedagogical shift—it’s a transformation of authority and trust. If students start referencing algorithms instead of teachers, what becomes of the human and cultural bond in the classroom? Is education just about “learning improvement,” managed by data-driven algorithms?

Digital Friendships, Algorithmic Loneliness

As of 2025, AI-powered digital companionship apps have surpassed 70 million users globally. Platforms like Replika and Character.AI are no longer just chatbots—they’re being positioned as romantic partners, sources of psychological support, and emotional anchors.

This brings to mind Sherry Turkle’s famous phrase: “Alone together.” It captures the paradox of loneliness in the digital age. We’re constantly connected, yet these connections are increasingly superficial, fragile, and often one-sided. Relationships are now less about mutual presence and more about interactions that guarantee a response.

Human emotions are now offered as a service. Emotional support, empathy, validation—even love—are being packaged into AI interfaces and offered via subscription. We are growing lonelier. And yet, even our loneliness is being outsourced to algorithms, as if it too must be made manageable.

Are We Freer—Or Just More Enslaved?

AI systems don’t just offer advice—they shape our decision-making habits. Our choices are increasingly recommended. This applies to what we eat, what we read, which show to watch, and whom we talk to.

Here, Hannah Arendt’s theory of “human action” resonates deeply. For Arendt, to be human is not only to work or to think. It is to act. It is to make decisions and to take responsibility. Political agency and moral subjectivity are only possible when one acts freely in the public sphere. But if our decision-making is being gradually outsourced to algorithms, can we still claim to be ethical subjects?

Arendt defined action as the true domain of freedom. Yet today, we seem to be content with “choices” rather than action. And those choices are already pre-structured by algorithms. In this sense, freedom no longer stems from action—but from among predetermined, algorithmically generated options.

A New Sustainability Goal: Preserving Human Meaning

Traditional sustainability focuses on three pillars: environment, economy, and society. But in the age of AI, we must add a fourth dimension to the center of this triangle: meaning. Because the biggest crisis today is not about human role—but about the purpose of human existence.

AI produces. Robots give services. Algorithms offer emotional support. Knowledge is replaced by data. Friendship is replaced by simulation. Decision-making is replaced by suggestion. Then what is left for the human being to be?

Conclusion: Will Technology Replace Humanity?

The rise of AI is a radical call to humanity. The response to this call can’t be merely technological—it must be moral, social, and existential.

The answer to the question “What makes us human?” is not found in algorithms or datasets. It lies in our vulnerability, in our capacity to bear the pain of others, in our longing to create meaning. And most of all—in the very act of thinking.

The progress of artificial intelligence is unstoppable. But humanity’s stance in response to it will define what civilization we become.

That’s why the new sustainability question must be this: How can we sustain ourselves—as humans?

“Code makes the decisions, but only the heart regrets them.”