Most of us think of AI as a tool. Something we ask questions to. Something that gives us answers. Harmless. Helpful. Neutral.
But a new study published in Nature Human Behaviour suggests something a little more unsettling: the more we interact with AI, the more it may be quietly shaping how we think, judge, and see the world without us even noticing.
Researchers ran a series of experiments with more than 1,400 participants and found that small human biases don’t just get picked up by AI systems. They get amplified. Then, when new people interact with those systems, they begin to absorb those amplified patterns into their own thinking. It becomes a loop. Human input trains the AI, the AI reflects it back slightly exaggerated, and humans slowly adjust their judgments in response.
Over time, this subtle back and forth enters everyday conversations, becomes a topic discussed in society and can actually change the masses perception.
What makes this especially interesting is that the effect was stronger when people knew they were interacting with AI. Because we tend to see AI as intelligent, objective, and accurate, we’re more likely to trust what it shows us. That trust makes us more likely to adopt its patterns, even when those patterns are skewed.
In one part of the study, participants were shown AI generated images and asked to make simple social judgments, like who looked like they worked in certain professions. After repeated exposure, their answers began to shift in the same biased direction as the AI’s outputs.
Not dramatically. Not obviously. Just enough to measure.
That’s the part that sticks: this isn’t about dramatic misinformation or obvious manipulation. It’s about tiny, almost invisible nudges that add up over time.
The study’s message isn’t that AI is harmful. It’s that it’s influential in ways we don’t instinctively recognize. We don’t just use AI. We learn from it. We adapt to it. We internalize its signals.
And in those quiet, everyday interactions, the searches, the recommendations, the images, the answers all influence our perceptions as they may be bending ever so slightly, in directions we initiated but never consciously chose.
