Freud would have called AI a ‘narcissistic insult’ to humanity – here’s how we might overcome it

AI can deal a fateful blow to human self-understanding. Stokkete/Shutterstock

In 1917, Sigmund Freud described three “narcissistic insults” that had been caused by science. These were moments of scientific breakthrough that showed humans that we are not as special as we once believed.

The first came with astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’s discovery%5D) that we are not at the centre of the universe, because the sun rather than the Earth is at our solar system’s centre. It was followed by two more: the loss of humanity’s position as “the crown of creation” through Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, and the loss of sovereignty over our own selves through the discovery of the power of the unconscious. The latter was Freud’s own work and, according to him, the toughest one of all.