Human Era — strengthen what is human
AI increasingly intrudes into personal matters — thinking, decisions, relationships and discernment. We study how personal AI use weakens human autonomy, and we show how to reclaim it.
Don't use AI
for personal matters
See where you stand and what it costs
SELF · OTHERS · MEANING
3 specialists
Educator · Therapist · Mentor
Mission
missionStatement
The timeline
Nobel laureates, safety researchers, psychiatrists, and people who built these systems themselves and then left in order to warn about them. We have gathered them on a single line — each with a short description of the danger and a link to the statement, so that what was actually said can be checked. The video conversations are there too.
1863
Samuel Butler
writer, essayist
and 33 more in between
2026
Dario Amodei
co-founder and chief executive of Anthropic
Mechanism
Every field we hand over means less human agency and more dependence on the tool. The Human Era programme names them explicitly so they can be consciously reclaimed.
Forming and ordering one's own thoughts.
Everyday and personal choices.
Conversations, support, human closeness.
Judging what is right, true and important.
Framework
SELF
One's own reflection, attention and inner discernment — the capacity to think and decide without an intermediary.
OTHERS
Real relationships and community — human contact that an "assistant" should not replace.
MEANING
Values, spirituality and a sense of direction — the area where delegating discernment costs the most.
How it works
Personal AI use changes gene expression: how your genes are expressed — we understand AI here as an environmental exposure that, through lifestyle (sleep, stress, isolation), affects epigenetic regulation and genome expression, not the DNA sequence.
AI Exposure
Personal AI use: time and depth of contact.
Human Displacement
Displacing human thinking, relationships and discernment.
Biological Embedding
Consolidating the effects through sleep, stress and lifestyle.
We treat the described effects as research hypotheses grounded in prior publications and our own research. At this stage they are not established clinical facts. Human Era is a research and education programme; it is not diagnosis or treatment and does not replace a doctor or therapist.
What we do since 1 October 2025
As an independent foundation we combine measurement, knowledge and practical recommendations — with nothing for sale and no conflict of interest.
Independent research on personal AI use and its impact on autonomy, attention and relationships.
Tools measuring the time and depth of personal AI use.
Practical "AI hygiene": rules for reduction and for returning to one's own reflection, people and community.
Individual support from an educator, therapist and mentor for people overloaded by AI.
Recommendations
Primary rule
1. Do not use AI for personal matters.
2. If you must, or you are dealing with dependence, follow the reduction principles:
Before you ask AI, formulate your own answer. The model is a last resort, not a starting point.
Shorten your personal-use time daily, down to zero — especially in the evening and before sleep.
Direct conversations, decisions and support to real relationships and community first.
Check your discernment with people you trust — do not hand it over to a single tool.
Research library
Research on what personal use of AI does to thinking, decisions, relationships and the body — and on ways of using AI without giving up autonomy. Originals, with summaries and source links.
A machine verdict sounds like expertise. It is not.
1 / 38
Loneliness leads to the chatbot. The chatbot deepens loneliness.
2026·EN
Folk & Dunn, Psychological Science, 2026
2,000+ adults over 12 months: loneliness predicts turning to social chatbots, and increased use predicts increased loneliness — a loop of short-term relief and long-term cost.
A brain that does not write stops remembering what it wrote.
2025·EN
Kosmyna i in., MIT Media Lab, 2025 (preprint)
EEG study: LLM-assisted writers showed the weakest neural connectivity, poorest recall of their own text and lowest ownership; over four months they underperformed at neural, linguistic and behavioral levels — "cognitive debt". Small sample, preprint: a signal, not a verdict.
Your voice in the research
We collect observations on how contact with artificial intelligence affects sleep, focus, mood and relationships. Answer three short questions and — if you wish — describe it in your own words or record a short message. Submissions are anonymous and used solely for research and educational purposes.
Consultations
The EPIQ Foundation supports arranging individual consultations for people who feel a loss of their own reflection, weakened relationships or AI-related anxiety. A conversation helps name the problem and choose practical steps back to balance.
For children, teenagers and parents — digital habits, learning without outsourcing to AI, support in building healthy boundaries at home and at school.
For people experiencing emotional overload, anxiety, compulsive use or signs of dependence — working on emotion regulation and a return to relationships.
For adults and professionals — practical AI hygiene at work, reclaiming your own thinking, decisions and focus.
The Foundation does not provide therapy or diagnosis. We respond with materials and information and, where needed, refer you to an educator, a therapist or a mentor. Requests are handled in order of arrival — we reply by email or phone.
Request
Write a few sentences about the person the request concerns and about the problem. First we send materials and information that may help right away. The Foundation does not provide therapy — if specialist support is needed, we help you find an educator, a therapist or a mentor.