Ella Breitfuß

Human Cultural Evolution in the Age of AI

My PhD project examines how interactions between humans and artificial intelligence shape the long-term development of human societies. I approach this question from an evolutionary perspective, focusing on how AI transforms the storage and transmission of cultural information. I propose that AI systems are becoming part of human cultural inheritance and that this transformation constitute an emerging Major Evolutionary Transition. To investigate this proposition, I combine theoretical, computational, and empirical approaches. Building on the theoretical framework developed in my first paper, I model how knowledge spreads and accumulates in networks involving both humans and AI systems. I then test selected predictions by tracing changes in a specific cultural phenomenon before and after the emergence of AI-transformed digital environments. Ultimately, the project evaluates whether AI represents more than an incremental technological change and may have evolutionary consequences for human culture comparable in significance to the emergence of symbolic language. Because AI systems are designed and governed by humans, decisions about their development and use may shape the future trajectory of human cultural evolution.