AI as Self-Discovery: How Large Language Models Reveal the Essence of the Human Mind, and Why It Matters

Most discussions of artificial intelligence center on its instrumental role—how it will transform industries and economies. But it may do something even more radical: reveal who we are. As artificial minds become more capable, they will expose the deep principles underlying human thought—how reasoning, agency, and creativity actually work. AI thus offers not just a technological revolution but a humanistic one. This new self-understanding, I argue, will force us to rethink core ideas about mind, agency, and the basis of praise and blame.