Societal Change

What is Societal Change?

The increasing digitalization of every day life is driving serious, large-scale societal change by disrupting the bonds that connect humans to one another.

Emerging technologies, particularly anthropomorphic AI – artificial intelligence designed to behave like a human – are exploiting our attachment. In some cases, children are forming emotional relationships with AI chatbots, choosing to confide in them over parents, siblings or friends.

When technology begins to interfere in the fundamental bonds which make us human, critical questions arise about the future of our society.

The advance of technologies than can simulate and thus replace human-to-human relationships pose extreme psychological risks. If unchecked, this industry is on track to create an unprecedented breakdown of human socialization, wherein a generation of youth is predominately “raised” by machines rather than humans

Dr. Zak Stein, Philosopher of Education and Author of "Education in a Time Between Worlds"

The Evidence

Trust

48%

of experts believe AI will mostly harm humanity's trust in widely shared cultural values and norms

Elon University, 2025
Entry-Level AI

43%

of business leaders plan to cut junior roles due to AI efficiencies

British Standards Institution, 2025
Relationships

60%

of people fear AI will replace relationships

Seismic Foundation Report, 2025
Fertility Rates

🧒👶

in 2025, the United Nations declared global fertility rates in “unprecedented decline”

United Nations, 2025
Tech Jobs Falling

53%

drop in UK tech graduate roles projected by 2026

Institute of Future Employers, 2025
Human Extinction

10-20%

chance that AI will lead to human extinction

Geoffrey Hinton, 2024
AI Romance

19%

of students in K-12 have used AI to have a romantic relationship

Center for Democracy and Technology, 2025
Unemployment

13%

employment decline seen among early-career workers in AI-exposed jobs

Stanford, 2025

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