"How is artificial intelligence changing our professional identities?" - A column published in Harvard Business Review by the French Philosopher Gabrielle Halpern
- gabriellehalpern
- Nov 26, 2025
- 4 min read
The French philosopher Gabrielle Halpern published a column in the Harvard Business Review France in which she shares her vision of artificial intelligence, and more precisely of generative artificial intelligence. What does it reveal about our brains, our society and about our humanity? What could be its political consequences?
"Several philosophers have theorized an inextricable link between our actions and our identity. Thus, Aristotle wrote that 'the things we must learn in order to do them, we learn by doing them: for example, it is by building that we become builders and by playing the lyre that we become lyre players; thus again, it is by practicing just actions that we become just, moderate actions that we become moderate, and courageous actions that we become courageous'. In short, to be, one must do; one creates one's being, and identity is the fruit of repeated action. Other philosophers have subscribed to this philosophy of being through doing, Jean-Paul Sartre, for example, who wrote, centuries later, that it is our actions that make us, that 'only actions decide what one has willed, that doing is revealing of being, and that in doing, we make ourselves. We are what we do, we become what we do,” Gabrielle Halpern
“These philosophical hypotheses have been tested by various recent experiments in cognitive science and have been strengthened by them. One can cite the famous study on the brains of London taxi drivers who do not use GPS to drive their passengers. Thanks to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) used by neurologist Eleanor Maguire, the MRI revealed that their brains exhibit a much higher than normal development of the posterior part of the hippocampus, a region of the brain that plays a major role in spatial orientation. It is as if, in the absence of GPS and the need to know every street in London by heart, their neurons had developed under the effect of a kind of cerebral muscle training. While clothes don't always make the man, do we nevertheless have the brain for our profession? From the Similarly, neurologist Lionel Naccache explains, based on experiments, that synaptic circuits are strengthened with each repeated action, thus facilitating the consolidation of an automatic response," Gabrielle Halpern
"But now the question arises: I am what I do, but if I delegate part of what I do to an artificial intelligence tool, am I still the same person or will I become someone else? Do a lawyer, an architect, a carpenter, or a teacher still have the same professional identity in the age of artificial intelligence? If practice makes perfect, am I still a blacksmith if I delegate part of my work to ChatGPT? Do I still have the brain of a blacksmith?" Gabrielle Halpern
"First of all, while artificial intelligence provides expertise—knowledge—it increasingly tends to act, when it is described as generative." Computer tools can produce legal conclusions, conduct radiological assessments, generate architectural plans, draft contracts, or create websites from start to finish. This means that the theory and practice inherent to any profession and constitutive of any professional identity can be increasingly delegated to artificial intelligence in a growing number of professions. A hypothesis is emerging—that delegating part of one's activity to artificial intelligence can have a direct impact on the brain—which seems to be implicitly confirmed by the study of London taxi drivers. Since they do not use GPS, their neurons may have developed through a kind of brain training, unlike taxi drivers who do use GPS. Furthermore, a study from MIT demonstrated the cognitive impact of AI use: the study of brain activity in GPT Chat users shows that, in terms of neural, linguistic, and behavioral performance, they consistently underperform. Compared to people who do not use it for the same tasks, 83.3% of users are unable to quote passages from essays they had written just minutes before; more than half of the cognitive load required to write an essay without any assistance decreases with the use of AI, causing brain atrophy; and finally, over time, writing with Chat GPT would accumulate a "cognitive debt" making it difficult to return to normal brain activity for tasks performed without generative AI. If the brain bears less and less of the distinctive mark of professional activity when that activity uses artificial intelligence, we can hypothesize that similar areas of our brains will increasingly develop under the influence of artificial intelligence, regardless of our professional activity. Indeed, a study presented at the 2024 Forum of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) shows that AI voices primarily stimulate brain areas linked to error detection and attention regulation, such as the anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Other, earlier studies already indicated that brain responses to cooperation with AI were more "instrumental," task-focused, whereas with a human, they mobilized social circuits more. The more professionals use generative artificial intelligence tools, the more they could develop the same brain areas involved in analytical processing, leading to a form of cognitive, and perhaps professional, standardization", Gabrielle Halpern
"Would a less pronounced individuality of brain activity also lead to less distinct professional identities? Numerous interviews conducted with professionals from various sectors reveal several things: the strength of professional identity depends closely on the use made of artificial intelligence and the relationship forged with it—professionals can master and appropriate the tool, work in synergy with it, or allow themselves to be assimilated by it—but also, more subjectively, on the unique and personal relationship a professional maintains with their job or role. The erosion, transformation, or reinforcement of professional identities will depend, once again and as always, on our actions. The crucial challenge now will be to determine what should and should not be delegated to artificial intelligence and, based on this, to define the professionals we aspire to become", Gabrielle Halpern
Discover Gabrielle Halpern's books at your favorite bookstore!
To order and reserve your work: https://www.leslibraires.fr/recherche/?q=Gabrielle+halpern
