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This recent season, I was caught in gridlocked traffic on the sweltering streets of Marseille. At a crossing, my friend in the passenger seat advised a right turn toward a famous spot for bouillabaisse. However, the navigation app on my phone instructed us to go forward. Weary and in a stifling car, I heeded the app's directive. Minutes later, we were stuck at a roadwork site.

A minor incident, perhaps. But one that encapsulates a central dilemma of our time, where digital tools permeates nearly every facet of our lives: who gets our trust more – other people 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 "man's release from its self-imposed nonage." This immaturity, he wrote, "is the inability to use one's own understanding without guidance from another." For ages, that directing force for human thought was often the clergyman, the king, or the feudal lord – figures purporting to channel God's voice. To comprehend phenomena like changing seasons, people sought answers in theology. In organizing the social world, from economics to matters of the heart, religious doctrine acted as the primary guide.

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

Kant argued that humans always possessed the ability to think rationally. They simply lacked the confidence to employ it. With revolutions in the 18th century, a new dawn emerged: logic would replace blind faith, and the human mind, liberated from authority, would become the driver of advancement and a better world.

Today, 250 years later, one might wonder if we are quietly regressing into a form of dependency. An app suggesting a driving route is merely the start. AI risks becoming our contemporary authority – a unseen overseer that steers our choices and behaviors. We risk ceding the hard-won autonomy to reason for ourselves – and now, not to gods or kings, but to lines of code.

The Swift Adoption and Subtle Dangers of Algorithmic Reliance

ChatGPT was launched a mere three years ago, and yet a recent study found that an vast number of people had engaged with artificial intelligence in the previous six months. Whether contemplating ending a relationship or selecting a vote, individuals are increasingly turning to machines for guidance. Research suggests a significant portion of user prompts relate to personal life matters. Even more striking than our use of AI for advice is what occurs when we let it speak for us. Writing is now one of the top uses for tools like ChatGPT, second only to practical requests. The late American author Joan Didion once remarked, “I write purely to discover what I am thinking.” What occurs when we cease writing? Do we lose that path?

Worryingly, emerging research suggests the answer may be yes. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used electroencephalography to track the mental engagement of essay writers who had could use AI, Google, or no aids. Those who could use AI displayed the lowest cognitive engagement and had trouble accurately recalling their own work. Maybe most concerning was that over time, individuals in the AI group grew increasingly reliant, pasting entire blocks of text.

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

Of course, AI's appeal lies in its efficiency. It saves time, reduces effort and – critically – offers a new method to offload accountability. In his 1941 book, Escape from Freedom, the German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm proposed that the rise of fascism could be partly explained by a preference to surrender autonomy in exchange for the comforting security of obedience. AI presents a modern avenue for relinquishing the weight of having to think and choose.

The Opacity Dilemma: Trust Without Understanding

AI's greatest allure is its capacity to perform tasks beyond human capability – sifting through vast datasets at lightning pace. Sitting in the car in Marseille, this was, after all, why I opted to believe the app over my companion (a choice she interpreted as an insult). With knowledge of all the data, certainly the algorithm must know best – or so I believed.

The fundamental problem is that AI operates as a black box. It generates knowledge, but without necessarily fostering human comprehension. We cannot fully grasp the process behind its conclusions – including its creators admit this. Nor can we check its reasoning against transparent standards. So when we heed AI's advice, we are not being led by logic. We are back in the realm of faith. In dubio pro machina: when in doubt, side with the machine – that may become our 21st-century credo.

Harnessing Without Eroding: The Critical Balance

AI can be a powerful tool for humanity in rational inquiry. It can aid in medical research, liberate us from tedious tasks, or handle administrative chores – work that are repetitive and are unfulfilling. This is beneficial. But Kant and his peers did not champion reason over faith just so humans could assemble better furniture or have extra free time. Critical thinking was not just about efficiency – it was a discipline of liberty and human emancipation.

Human thought is often chaotic and fallible, but it compels us to argue, to question, to challenge concepts – and to acknowledge the boundaries of our own understanding. It builds confidence, both individually and collectively. For Kant, the use of reason was never only about information; it was about enabling people to become authors of their own lives, and to resist domination. It was about building a moral community based on the shared principle of rational discourse, rather than blind belief.

With all the advantages AI offers, the paramount challenge remains: how can we leverage its promise of superhuman intelligence without undermining human reasoning, 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 delegate to the machine.