Being human in the age of superhuman AI: The effects of superior AI on people's sense of agency, self-efficacy, and AI-anxiety

Abstract

Superhuman AI that surpasses human performance in domains once regarded as uniquely human is increasingly infiltrating people's daily lives. However, research suggests that people do not like being 'outsmarted' by AI. Although knowledge about the psychological impact of interacting with superhuman AI is crucial, empirical research is scarce. We conduct a 1-factorial between-subjects experiment in which participants compete against a purported AI opponent in a visual reasoning challenge. We measure the impact of being outperformed by AI on key psychological variables Sense of Agency and Self-Efficacy. Results show that being outperformed by AI leads to a lowered Sense of Agency and Task-Specific Efficacy. These, in turn, increase AI anxiety. This research sheds light on the psychological consequences of interacting with superhuman AI, and raises the question: if short exposure can already influence Sense of Agency and Task-Specific Efficacy, what does long-term and multiple exposure do to how humans perceive themselves?