THE ALGORITHMIC SELF: HOW AI IS RESHAPING HUMAN IDENTITY, INTROSPECTION, AND AGENCY

Liviu Poenaru
Oct 9
2 min read

Oct. 2025

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a mysterious technological presence hiding behind screens; it is intertwined with the most intimate dimensions of who we are. From playlists on Spotify to language model-generated replies, personalized news feeds, to self-tracking wellbeing apps, algorithms co-create the way we know ourselves and belong in the world today. In spite of the worldwide love for AI for its revolutionary utility in various sectors, it is necessary to examine how it exerts a subtler, but no less impactful, psychological impact on personal self, self-awareness, and agency (Banja, 2020; Namestiuk, 2023). This article examines the idea of the “Algorithmic Self”—something that indexes how AI's interpretive feed starts mediating self-knowledge, not merely shaping what we do, but also who we become and the narratives we narrate to ourselves.

The “Algorithmic Self” refers to a form of digitally mediated identity in which personal awareness, preferences, and even emotional patterns are shaped through continuous feedback from AI systems (Turtle et al., 2024). It is not merely a self-reflected in technology but co-constructed by it—where algorithms do not passively reflect the self but actively participate in its formation (Masiero, 2023). This concept draws loosely on post-humanist and surveillance capitalism frameworks, which describe the self as increasingly entangled with and constructed by digital infrastructures (Bartley, 2019; Leander and Burriss, 2020). In this view, the self is no longer autonomous and inwardly derived, but assembled across interfaces, platforms, and predictive logics.

The more time we spend in a world where algorithms dictate so much of what and how we know, the more necessary it is that we explore how AI reconfigures not just what we are doing, but who we are doing it as (Wang, 2023; Fesce, 2024). The “Algorithmic Self” is the place where human consciousness encounters machine feedback—a frontier that is both emancipating and limiting (Canbul Yaroglu, 2024). This article is intended to shed light on how algorithms construct identity, and a critical exploration into the psychology and morals in a world fast becoming driven by AI narratives. This exploration unfolds through a series of interconnected lenses, each illuminating how artificial intelligence mediates different aspects of selfhood in the digital age. Though each theme addresses a distinct psychological or existential concern, they collectively depict a broader transformation—one where the boundaries between human introspection and algorithmic feedback blur. Rather than presenting isolated observations, this article seeks to build a layered understanding of how AI co-produces identity, emotion, and agency.