Being Human in 2035 — The impact of the social, economic, and political forces shaping AI
The report Being Human in 2035: How Are We Changing in the Age of AI? was published on April 2, 2025, by the Imagining the Digital Future Center at Elon University. Authored by Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie, the report presents insights from over 300 global technology experts on how artificial intelligence may profoundly affect human capacities and behaviors by 2035. The study aims to inform public discourse and policy by exploring anticipated changes in areas such as empathy, decision-making, creativity, and mental well-being as humans adapt to AI integration.
Steve Rosenbaum, co-founder and director of the Sustainable Media Center, author The Future of Truth (pub date Spring 2026).
“We’re not just changing technology. Technology is rewriting what it means to be human — and who gets to profit from our transformation. Imagine a world where your AI doesn’t just predict your next move it determines your economic destiny. Where algorithms don’t just track wealth but actively create and destroy financial futures with a line of code. Welcome to 2035: the year capitalism becomes a machine-learning algorithm.
Steve Rosenbaum: Life in 2035 is a continuous economic transaction that we never consented to but can’t escape run by an economic aristocracy using AI to extract value from human existence itself.
“Banks? Obsolete. Traditional investment? A relic. Now, AI systems predict economic value before you even know you have it. A teenager’s potential earning capacity can be calculated, packaged, and sold before they’ve written their first resume. Your life becomes an investment portfolio, your human potential reduced to a predictive model.
“But here’s the razor’s edge: Who controls these algorithms controls everything. Not just markets. Not just governments. Everything. The most terrifying transfer of wealth in human history is happening in plain sight. We’re not just losing jobs to automation. We’re losing the entire concept of human economic agency. Your worth is no longer what you can do — it’s what the algorithm says you might do.
“Humans in 2035 aren’t workers or consumers. We’re walking data streams, our entire existence a continuous economic transaction that we never consented to but can’t escape. The future isn’t about artificial intelligence replacing humans. It’s about a new economic aristocracy that uses AI to extract value from human existence itself.
“Welcome to late-stage capitalism 2.0. The machines aren’t just watching. They’re collecting.”
