The AI Agency Dilemma (Part 1): Would You Give Up Your Sense of Smell to Stay Connected? AIと主体性のジレンマ（前編）：つながるために、嗅覚を手放せますか？

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 日本語訳

The AI Agency Dilemma (Part 1): Would You Give Up Your Sense of Smell to Stay Connected?

Fifteen years ago, an international survey reported a striking finding. In 2011, McCann Worldgroup surveyed 7,000 people aged 16 to 30 in seven countries. In a hypothetical exercise, participants chose two things to keep from a list. Roughly half said they would give up their sense of smell to keep technology, often a phone or laptop. Their responses suggested that staying digitally connected could matter more to them than a fundamental human sense.

At the time, the finding highlighted technology’s place in young people’s lives. Today, our relationship with technology is changing again. Alongside using it to help us do things, we can now ask it to think and decide for us. Our relationship now extends beyond connection to include delegation. A similar question about AI might produce an even more striking response, although that remains speculation.

One important concept in discussions about AI is “agency.” In philosophy and social science, agency broadly concerns the capacity to act. Here, human agency means thinking critically, making our own choices, and acting on them.

Familiar AI assistants have often waited for human requests. Today, the tech industry is developing “agentic AI”: systems that plan steps, make decisions, and carry out complex tasks toward goals, usually set by people. They need less direction at each step.

AI already helps with everyday tasks and decisions. It drafts emails, analyzes business data, and recommends what to watch. The convenience is clear. But handing over more choices raises an unsettling question: where does human decision-making end and AI decision-making begin?

We can now outsource parts of our thinking to machines. But what happens if AI removes the “friction”—the effort and struggle—of finding an answer? Could life become easier while thinking for ourselves becomes harder? More unsettling still, could we feel fully in control without noticing how much we have handed over?