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This recent season, I found myself navigating in gridlocked traffic on the scorching streets of Marseille. At a crossing, my companion in the front seat suggested a right turn toward a famous spot for bouillabaisse. However, the digital guide on my phone instructed us to continue straight. Weary and in a stifling car, I followed the app's advice. Minutes later, we were stuck at a roadwork site.

A seemingly trivial incident, maybe. But one that captures a central question of our time, where digital tools permeates nearly every facet of our lives: whom do we trust to a greater degree – fellow humans and our personal instincts, or the machine?

The Enlightenment's Promise and A Contemporary Backslide

The influential German philosopher Immanuel Kant famously described the Enlightenment as "humanity's emergence from its self-imposed immaturity." This immaturity, he wrote, "is the inability to use one's personal reason without guidance from an external source." For ages, that guiding "other" for society was often the clergyman, the king, or the landowner – figures purporting to channel divine will. To explain phenomena like changing seasons, people sought answers in theology. In shaping the social world, from economics to love, faith acted as the primary guide.

“Sapere aude!” or “Dare to use your reason!”

Kant maintained that humans had the ability to think rationally. They just didn't have the confidence to employ it. With upheavals in the 18th century, a new dawn emerged: reason would replace blind faith, and the human mind, liberated from authority, would become the driver of advancement and a better world.

Now, two and a half centuries later, one might wonder if we are slipping back into a form of dependency. An app dictating a driving route is just one example. AI threatens to become our contemporary authority – a silent guide that influences our decisions and behaviors. We are in danger of relinquishing the hard-won autonomy to think independently – and this time, not to deities or rulers, but to computer programs.

The Rapid Rise and Subtle Dangers of AI Dependence

ChatGPT debuted only in 2022, and yet a global survey found that an overwhelming majority of respondents had used AI in the previous six months. Whether deciding on a breakup or choosing a candidate, individuals are looking to machines for guidance. Data suggests a significant portion of user queries relate to personal life matters. Even more striking than our use of AI for advice is what happens when we let it speak for us. Writing is now among the most common uses for tools like ChatGPT, just behind everyday tasks. The celebrated American author Joan Didion famously said, “I write entirely to discover what I am thinking.” What occurs when we stop composing? Do we cease discovering?

Worryingly, emerging research hints the answer may be yes. A study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used brain monitoring to observe the cognitive activity of essay writers who had access to AI, traditional search engines, or nothing. Those who could rely on AI showed the least brain activity and had difficulty quoting their own work. Maybe most concerning was that after a few months, individuals in the AI group became increasingly reliant, pasting large sections of text.

“Laziness and cowardice,” Kant wrote, “are the reasons why so great a proportion of men … stay in perpetual nonage.”

Certainly, AI's attraction stems from its convenience. It saves time, reduces effort and – importantly – offers a new method to abdicate accountability. In his 1941 book, Escape from Freedom, the German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm argued that the appeal of authoritarianism could be partly explained by a human tendency to give up personal freedom in exchange for the comforting security of subordination. AI offers a modern method of relinquishing the burden of having to decide for oneself.

The Opacity Dilemma: Faith Over Reason

AI's greatest allure is its capacity to perform tasks outside our minds – sifting through oceans of data at lightning pace. Sitting in the car in Marseille, this was, ultimately, why I chose to trust the machine over my friend (a choice she interpreted as an affront). With knowledge of all the data, certainly the app must know best – or so I thought.

The core issue is that AI is a black box. It produces knowledge, but without necessarily fostering human comprehension. We do not truly know how AI reaches its decisions – even its programmers acknowledge the opacity. Nor can we verify its logic against clear, objective criteria. So when we follow AI's advice, we are not being led by logic. We are back in the domain of faith. In dubio pro machina: when in doubt, trust the machine – that may become our 21st-century credo.

Using Without Losing: The Essential Challenge

AI can be a formidable ally for humanity in scientific pursuit. It can aid in inventing drugs, free us from tedious tasks, or handle administrative chores – duties that are repetitive and offer little satisfaction. All to the good. But Kant and his peers did not advocate for enlightenment just so humans could optimize chores or have extra free time. Critical thinking was not just about efficiency – it was a practice of liberty and human emancipation.

Human thought is inherently messy and error-prone, but it forces us to argue, to question, to challenge concepts – and to recognize the limits of our own understanding. It builds self-reliance, both personally and collectively. For Kant, the exercise of reason was never only about information; it was about empowering people to become agents of their own destinies, and to oppose domination. It was about creating a moral community based on the common foundation of reason and debate, rather than unquestioning acceptance.

With all the undeniable benefits AI brings, the key question is this: how can we harness its potential of advanced capability without undermining human rationality, the bedrock of the Enlightenment and of liberal democracy themselves? That is likely one of the central dilemmas of our century. It is a question we must strive not to outsource to the machine.