Superagency

At the center of many technological debates lies a fundamental question about human agency—our ability to make independent choices, act upon them, and exert influence over our lives. The rise of artificial intelligence is challenging the very concept of human agency, forcing us to ask whether we can continue to direct our own destinies or if, by relying on intelligent systems, we risk yielding control over the decisions that define our lives.

Consider the myriad of issues surrounding AI:

• Job displacement: Will I have the economic means to support myself, and opportunities to engage in pursuits I find meaningful?
• Data privacy: Will my data be used against me or for me? How do I maintain the integrity of my own identity and preserve an authentic sense of self?
• Disinformation and misinformation: How do I know who and what to trust as I make decisions that impact my life?
• Tech company dominance: Am I losing control to corporate entities? Are they subtly manipulating me with algorithms to serve corporate interests rather than my own?

Each of these concerns circles back to the same core issue: human agency. But as AI systems evolve, their capacity for self-directed learning, problem-solving, and executing complex series of tasks without constant human oversight also increases. In time, this means more and more systems, devices, and machines will encroach on areas traditionally governed by human agency—including in ways that humans may find objectionable.

And even in instances where we welcome such cognitive offloading, other issues arise: What if, through over-reliance on machine agency and capabilities, our own skills and agency atrophy over time? What if the systems that are supposedly working on our behalf—and delivering outcomes we approve of—end up shaping our behaviors and choices in ways that we haven't explicitly consented to?

To understand how we might adapt to and benefit from AI, look no further than the smartphone revolution.

The smartphone example

If smartphones didn't exist and were suddenly proposed today, imagine the headlines:

"Big Tech to Release Device That Tracks Your Every Move"

"New Gadget Aims to Capture All Your Personal Data"

"Constant Connectivity: The End of Privacy as We Know It?"

These concerns aren't unfounded. Smartphones do indeed collect vast amounts of personal data, disrupt our attention spans, and facilitate other problematic behaviors. They've changed how we interact with the world and each other, sometimes in ways we might not have chosen if given the option beforehand.

Yet, despite these valid concerns, smartphones have become ubiquitous. Why? Because people recognize that while smartphones may limit certain aspects of their agency, they dramatically enhance it in others. The ability to access information instantly, communicate with anyone around the globe, navigate unfamiliar territories, and carry a powerful computer in our pockets has expanded our capabilities in ways that were unimaginable just a few decades ago.

And the smartphone is just one of many examples. From cars, steam power, and the internet, all the way back to the wheel, spoken language, and the controlled use of fire, the story of humanity is that we are defined by our capacity and commitment to creating new ways of being in the world through our tool-making. And now we have a new super-tool: AI.

AI, the super-tool

Working in tandem, intelligence and energy drive human agency, and thus human progress. Intelligence gives us the capacity to weigh options, and to envision and plan for different potential scenarios. Energy enables us to then take action on whatever we aspire to achieve. The more intelligence and energy we can leverage on our behalf, the greater our capacity to make things happen, individually and collectively.

AI will enable our next great leap forward. In contrast to innovations like books or how-to videos on YouTube, AI isn't just a way to manufacture and distribute knowledge, as valuable as that is. Because an AI has the capacity to be agentic itself, setting goals and taking actions on its own to achieve them, you can leverage AI in two distinct ways. In some instances, you might want to work closely with an AI—such as when you're learning a new language or practicing mindfulness skills. In others, such as optimizing your home's energy consumption based on real-time energy prices and weather forecasts, you might prefer to let an AI handle that by itself.

Either way, the AI is increasing your agency, because it's helping you take actions designed to lead to outcomes you desire. And either way, something new and transformative is happening. For the first time ever, synthetic intelligence, not just knowledge, is becoming as flexibly deployable as synthetic energy has been since the rise of steam power in the 1700s. Intelligence itself is now a tool—a scalable, highly configurable, self-compounding engine for progress.

AI will undoubtedly change aspects of our lives in ways that may initially seem uncomfortable or even threatening. While it's natural to focus on potential losses of agency, AI offers heroic gains in human capability—a concept I’ve begun referring to as "superagency."

A world of superagency

Superagency is what happens when a critical mass of individuals, personally empowered by AI, begin to operate at levels that compound throughout society. In other words, it's not just that some people are becoming more informed and better-equipped thanks to AI. Everyone is, even those who rarely or never use AI directly.

Because many of the colleagues, professionals, other people, and systems you interact with and rely on will be augmenting their capabilities with these new systems and agents too. So your auto mechanic will know exactly what that weird thump coming from your trunk means when you accelerate from a traffic light on a hot day. The physical therapist overseeing your recovery from knee replacement surgery will create a personalized rehabilitation program that adapts in real-time based on your progress, pain levels, and biomechanical data from wearable sensors. Public transit systems will use AI to optimize bus routes and schedules in real-time. Even ATMs, parking meters, and vending machines will become multilingual geniuses who understand your needs instantly and adjust to your preferences.

That's the world of superagency.

A world where everyone is getting the mental healthcare they desire is a more just and humane world, even if it takes AI-powered therapists to help achieve it.

A world where every individual has access to virtual tutors and virtual legal advisors and virtual whatever-they-need's is a world where everyone has a better shot at becoming the best possible version of themselves—and the benefits of that accrue to us all.

A world where every scientist with an intriguing but unconventional hypothesis that would have trouble securing funding to pursue in a physical lab can use AI to run complex simulations, analyze vast datasets, and validate theories virtually is a world that accelerates the pace of discovery in ways that benefit us all.

This is the world that superagency enables, and we're already starting to see its contours in vivid and promising ways.