When AI Starts Thinking for Us: Digital Identity, Critical Thinking, and Behavioural Autonomy in the Age of Generative AI

This conceptual paper examines the psychological implications of generative artificial intelligence for critical thinking, behavioural autonomy, digital identity, and autobiographical meaning-making. It distinguishes functional cognitive offloading from higher-order cognitive outsourcing and proposes a continuum of human–AI interaction ranging from AI as a tool to AI as a decision surrogate. The paper introduces the distinction between AI-supported agency and AI-displaced agency and explores generative AI as a potential external interpretative layer in autobiographical meaning-making, connecting the analysis to the Internal Autobiographical Map (IAM) framework. It also proposes five principles for responsible cognitive partnership with AI and outlines a research agenda for empirical investigation.

Conference paper presented at Psychology of Cyberspace 2026 (Poland / International Online Conference), 5 September 2026.

Author: Prof. Dr. Stoyana Natseva

ORCID: 0009-0008-1692-1935