THE ESSENTIALS

• Until now, tools were quite distinct from the being that used them.
• Today, the emergence of mainstream artificial intelligence systems is blurring the lines: our memories and decisions are often intimately linked to our digital footprints, while modern computer systems feed on our data.
• Considering a gradual blurring of this conceptual boundary allows us to change the terms of the debates and reflections surrounding the rise of AI.

There’s something strangely reassuring about the way we keep talking about artificial intelligence. As if the fundamental geometry of this relationship had already been drawn once and for all. On one side, human beings. On the other, machines .

Yet, machines are becoming faster, more convincing, more autonomous; humans are adapting, resisting, or perhaps even fading into the background. But the boundary between the two remains remarkably unquestioned, as if its permanence were self-evident.

And yet, as we live with these systems, something more ambiguous begins to emerge.

An increasingly internalized interaction with artificial systems

The distinctive feature of contemporary artificial intelligence lies precisely in its refusal to remain outside of ourselves.

The tools of the past occupied a relatively simple place in our lives . A hammer extended the hand. A telescope broadened the scope of vision. A computer facilitated calculation. We used them while remaining firmly rooted in our own identity.

Artificial intelligence is disrupting this balance. Gradually, interaction ceases to appear cognitively external. Memory is dispersed into digital archives to which we constantly return. Decisions emerge from a continuous negotiation with algorithms capable of anticipating our preferences (like the recommendation systems deployed on major digital platforms) even before they have fully formed.

Systems based on argumentative dialogue illustrate this transformation by integrating user reactions into an iterative process of justifying and revising recommendations: reflection can now unfold through exchanges with conversational agents . In short, human thought increasingly borrows from artificial structures before returning to us, subtly transformed.

At the same time, artificial systems feed on vast quantities of traces of human experience. Language models discover the multiple forms of emotional expression and acquire the ability to interpret their nuances. They have learned linguistic cues, affective nuances, and contexts of expression, to the point of recognizing complex emotional states in textual interactions . They assimilate traces of human experience without ever becoming part of human experience itself.

What then appears is a “liminal space”: a territory where there is neither true fusion nor clear separation, but an intermediate, fluid state, in which the categories that once structured our interactions gradually lose their obviousness.

Humans become partially artificial through the gradual externalization of their cognition, perception, and action. Machines, for their part, absorb human language, movements, behaviors, and emotions during the interaction itself. Around them, the environment also begins to transform, acquiring its own unique hybrid nature.

None of these categories disappears completely. But none emerges unscathed from the encounter.

Human enhancement technologies: at the heart of this ambiguity

A person using an adaptive prosthesis is assisted by a device that continuously adjusts its behavior to their movements and intentions . This adaptive approach now extends to motorized lower limb prostheses , which are capable of adjusting their assistance to the dynamics of walking.

Beyond compensating for a lost function, wearable robots extend the body by offering new possibilities for action, sometimes by means of additional limbs directly controlled by the user .

Other approaches favor close collaboration between humans and robotic arms worn on the body to assist in the execution of complex tasks .

Finally, predictive cognitive systems exploit the data continuously produced by the user to anticipate some of their states or needs and adapt their operation accordingly.

Thought, movement, and perception begin to circulate simultaneously between biological and artificial layers. Agency gradually overflows the boundaries of the body to distribute itself into systems that anticipate, respond, and adapt in turn. And the brain, slowly, redefines what it considers to be part of the body and the self.

What emerges is then neither entirely human nor entirely artificial, but a more fluid condition, continually reconstructed through interaction with the machine and the surrounding environment.

Machines are also transforming our environment

Virtual reality and augmented reality undoubtedly offer the most visible expression of this environmental transformation. In these immersive worlds, the body remains physical while perception is anchored in a computationally generated world . Presence ceases to perfectly coincide with physical space. The environment itself acquires a “liminal” quality, suspended somewhere between tangible reality and artificial construct.

Yet, much of the current discussion surrounding artificial intelligence continues to focus on intelligence, consciousness, or human replacement. These questions are certainly important, but they may not be the most profound.

The essential transformation does not lie in a possible replacement of humans.

The main transformation lies in the gradual blurring of the conceptual boundaries through which modern societies have long organized their relationships with machines and with their environment.

And perhaps this is what gives contemporary artificial intelligence its strange mix of fascination and unease. The interaction doesn’t just change our habits or behaviors. It begins to destabilize the very categories through which we have traditionally understood what we are, what our machines are, and what the worlds we inhabit are.

Future collaborations between psychologists, neuroscientists, computer scientists, and artists will be essential to exploring this liminal space. Understanding how it transforms the human brain, individual behaviors, and social dynamics is a necessary step if we wish to develop artificial intelligence designed as a collaborative entity rather than a competitive one.

Author Bios: Ganesh Gowrishankar is a Researcher at the Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics of Montpellier and Madalina Croitoru is a Professor both at the University of Montpellier