Résumés > Life as Autofabrication: The role of AI

Jeudi 6 novembre 2025 - 11h30-12h15

Wei-Wen CHUNG, Professor Emeritus, National Chengchi University, Taïwan.

This paper investigates the potential role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the process of human self-creation, or what Ortega y Gasset terms autofabrication. For Ortega, human life is fundamentally defined by the effort to bring oneself into existence—a continual act of production. Distinct from other species, humans, as Tim Ingold observes, are “zoo-sociological hybrids,” straddling both nature and culture. In this light, technology can be viewed as a material expression of the autofabricating impulse intrinsic to human life.

The emergence of AI presents a new and complex chapter in this ongoing narrative. This paper explores three central questions: First, what is the historical relationship between technology and autofabrication, and how might AI contribute to or transform it? Second, what trajectories might autofabrication take in the context of AI’s unique capabilities and material presence, particularly given concerns about human obsolescence? Finally, how might AI be shaped or directed to support human well-being rather than undermine it? Through these inquiries, the paper seeks to position AI not as a threat to human significance, but as a potential partner in the evolving project of human becoming.