AI and the Self: Human Identity, Authenticity, and Agency in the Age of AI

Large language models, recommender systems, multimodal agents, digital avatars, and brain-computer interfaces are increasingly intimate, personalized counterparts rather than external tools. They can act as interlocutors, cognitive extensions, mirrors, collaborators, and social actors, reshaping self-perception, agency, emotional life, competence, authorship, and cultural worldview. Despite extensive work on alignment, safety, fairness, and human-centered AI, we still lack shared frameworks and evaluation methods for understanding AI’s impact on selfhood (the “algorithmic self”) before such systems become ubiquitous. This one-day NeurIPS workshop convenes researchers and practitioners across AI, HCI, cognitive and social sciences, philosophy, ethics, education, and health to operationalize an emerging research agenda on AI and the Self. We solicit non-archival papers and demos that (1) measure and evaluate AI’s effects on self-concept, autonomy, dependence, and skill change; (2) explore technical design choices: memory, personalization, uncertainty, abstention, refusal, etc. that support reflection while avoiding manipulation, unhealthy attachment, or culturally narrow models of the self; (3) study how language, culture, and values shape (and are shaped by) AI systems; (4) analyze transformations of learning, creativity, expertise, and professional identity in AI-mediated work; and (5) clarify philosophical, ethical, legal, and spiritual foundations around responsibility, authorship, and personhood. Through keynotes, panels, and poster sessions, the workshop aims to produce concrete research problems, evaluation strategies, and design principles for AI systems that preserve and strengthen human agency.