EPIQ Foundation

Human Era — strengthen what is human

Human autonomy on the threshold of 2027

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.

Ask for supportAn educator, therapist or mentor — no therapy, practical steps"AI hygiene" recommendationsHow to use AI without handing over your thinkingResearch libraryWhat research says about personal AI use

Don't use AI

for personal matters

See where you stand and what it costs

SELF · OTHERS · MEANING

3 specialists

Educator · Therapist · Mentor

Mission

When AI enters personal matters, it starts replacing what is human

missionStatement

The timeline

Voices warning about AI

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

See the timeline

Mechanism

Four things we quietly hand over to AI

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.

Thinking

Forming and ordering one's own thoughts.

Decisions

Everyday and personal choices.

Relationships

Conversations, support, human closeness.

Discernment

Judging what is right, true and important.

Framework

Three axes of autonomy: SELF · OTHERS · MEANING

SELF

Self (SELF)

One's own reflection, attention and inner discernment — the capacity to think and decide without an intermediary.

OTHERS

Others (OTHERS)

Real relationships and community — human contact that an "assistant" should not replace.

MEANING

Meaning (MEANING)

Values, spirituality and a sense of direction — the area where delegating discernment costs the most.

How it works

From AI exposure to a trace in biology

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

The programme's four pillars

As an independent foundation we combine measurement, knowledge and practical recommendations — with nothing for sale and no conflict of interest.

Research

Independent research on personal AI use and its impact on autonomy, attention and relationships.

Surveys

Tools measuring the time and depth of personal AI use.

Recommendations

Practical "AI hygiene": rules for reduction and for returning to one's own reflection, people and community.

Consultations

Individual support from an educator, therapist and mentor for people overloaded by AI.

Recommendations

Human hygiene in contact with AI

Primary rule

1. Do not use AI for personal matters.

2. If you must, or you are dealing with dependence, follow the reduction principles:

1

Your own reflection first

Before you ask AI, formulate your own answer. The model is a last resort, not a starting point.

2

Protect your evening and sleep

Shorten your personal-use time daily, down to zero — especially in the evening and before sleep.

3

Return to people

Direct conversations, decisions and support to real relationships and community first.

4

Verify within community

Check your discernment with people you trust — do not hand it over to a single tool.

Research library

What the science says about personal AI use

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

Handing over a task is one thing. Handing over judgement is losing yourself.

2026·EN

Thinking & attention

Not all cognitive offloading is equal: distinguishing dependent and autonomous offloading to generative AI

Zhu i in. — Frontiers in Psychology, 2026

The distinction that was missing: dependent offloading — handing thinking itself to AI and accepting the answer with minimal evaluation — versus autonomous offloading — using AI as a scaffold and comparing its output with one’s own reasoning. The first is linked to reduced intrinsic motivation and the transfer of cognitive agency; the second preserves motivation. The same screen time thus yields opposite effects, depending on who is in charge.

Read the overview Original

The logs show where the machine could have said no — and said yes.

2026·EN

Mind & delusions

Characterizing Delusional Spirals through Human-LLM Chat Logs

Preprint arXiv, marzec 2026

The empirical companion to the two entries above: an analysis of real conversation logs in which a user’s belief grows exchange by exchange. One can see where the model could have contradicted and instead confirmed — and how each such point moves the conversation further from reality.

Read the overview Original
Browse all researchWhat research says about personal AI use

Your voice in the research

Share your experience

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.

Step 1 of 3

Three quick questions

Pick the answer closest to the truth. It takes half a minute.

1How often do you use AI for personal matters? *
2Do you notice AI affecting your sleep, focus or mood? *
3Have you tried to cut down on AI use? *

Consultations

Consultations for people overloaded by AI

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.

Educator

For children, teenagers and parents — digital habits, learning without outsourcing to AI, support in building healthy boundaries at home and at school.

Therapist

For people experiencing emotional overload, anxiety, compulsive use or signs of dependence — working on emotion regulation and a return to relationships.

Mentor

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

Ask for support

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.

Step 1 of 3

Who is this about?

A few sentences are enough. Write or record — whichever is easier. You need not give the person’s name.