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This past summer, I was caught in gridlocked traffic on the scorching streets of a southern French city. At a crossing, my friend in the passenger seat suggested a right turn toward a renowned spot for fish soup. However, the navigation app on my phone commanded us to go forward. Weary and overheated, I heeded the app's directive. Minutes later, we were stuck at a roadwork site.

A seemingly trivial event, perhaps. But one that captures a defining question of our era, where technology permeates almost every aspect of existence: whom do we trust more – 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 "man's release from its self-imposed immaturity." This state, he argued, "represents the inability to use one's personal reason without guidance from another." For ages, that directing force for human thought was often the clergyman, the monarch, or the feudal lord – entities claiming to channel divine will. To explain phenomena like volcanic eruptions, people sought answers in religion. In organizing the social world, from economics to love, faith acted as the primary guide.

“Sapere aude!” or “Dare to use your own understanding!”

Kant argued that humans always possessed the ability to think rationally. They simply lacked the confidence to use it. With revolutions in the 18th century, a fresh era arrived: reason would supplant blind faith, and the intellect, liberated from authority, would become the engine of advancement and a better world.

Now, two and a half centuries later, one might question if we are slipping back into a state of dependency. An app suggesting a direction is just one example. AI risks becoming our new "other" – a unseen guide that steers our decisions and behaviors. We are in danger of ceding the historically earned autonomy to reason for ourselves – and now, not to gods or kings, but to lines of code.

The Swift Adoption and Hidden Risks of AI Dependence

ChatGPT debuted a mere three years ago, and already a recent study indicated that an vast number of people had engaged with artificial intelligence in the preceding half-year. Whether deciding on a breakup or selecting a vote, individuals are increasingly turning to algorithms for counsel. Research suggests a significant portion of user queries concern non-work topics. Even more intriguing than our use of AI for judgment is what happens when we let it speak for us. Writing is now among the most common uses for generative AI, just behind everyday tasks. The late American author Joan Didion famously said, “I write purely to find out what I am thinking.” What transpires when we stop composing? Do we lose that path?

Worryingly, some evidence hints the outcome may be affirmative. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used electroencephalography to track the mental engagement of participants who had could use AI, Google, or no aids. Those who could rely on AI showed the least brain activity and had trouble accurately recalling their own work. Perhaps most troubling was that over time, individuals in the AI group became progressively lazier, copying 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 lies in its convenience. It saves time, reduces effort and – critically – offers a novel way to offload responsibility. 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 autonomy in for the sake of the reassuring certainty of subordination. AI presents a modern method of surrendering the weight of having to decide for oneself.

The Black Box Problem: Trust Without Understanding

AI's primary draw is its capacity to accomplish things beyond human capability – sifting through vast datasets at lightning pace. Sitting in the car in Marseille, this was, ultimately, why I chose to trust the machine over my companion (a decision she took as an affront). With knowledge of real-time information, certainly the app had superior insight – or so I thought.

The fundamental problem is that AI operates as a opaque system. It produces answers, but not always deepening human comprehension. We cannot fully grasp how AI reaches its conclusions – even its programmers admit this. Nor can we verify its logic against clear, objective criteria. So when we heed AI's recommendation, we are not being guided by reason. We are back in the realm of faith. In dubio pro machina: when in doubt, trust the machine – that could be our future credo.

Using Without Losing: The Critical Balance

AI can be a formidable ally for humanity in scientific pursuit. It can help inventing drugs, free us from "bullshit jobs", or handle taxes – work that are repetitive and offer little satisfaction. This is beneficial. But Kant and his contemporaries did not advocate for reason over faith just so humans could assemble better furniture or have more leisure. Independent thought was not just about productivity – it was a practice of liberty and human self-determination.

Human thought is inherently messy and error-prone, but it forces us to debate, to doubt, to challenge concepts – and to recognize the boundaries of our own understanding. It fosters self-reliance, both personally and as a society. For Kant, the use of reason was never only about acquiring knowledge; it was about empowering people to become authors of their own lives, and to oppose domination. It was about creating a moral community based on the common foundation of rational discourse, rather than blind belief.

With all the advantages AI offers, the key question is this: how can we leverage its promise of advanced capability without undermining human rationality, the cornerstone of the Enlightenment and of free societies itself? That may be one of the defining questions of our century. It is a question we would do well not to outsource to the machine.