The asymmetry is thinner

Philippe Beaudoin · February 17, 2026

The most fascinating thing about AI is that we believe we can invent something that is functionally equivalent to us, yet that using it will not change us.

The only reason we can consider ourselves as separate from our basic tools is that the tools do not model us as we use them. But when a tool begins to model us with increasing accuracy, then we have to remember we’re just machines ourselves.

Considering us as “the user” and the tool as “the used” forces an asymmetry that corresponds to something thinner and thinner. We hold on to that remaining “difference” but the reason might have less to do with the real impact of that difference than the comfort we get from the story of “man and his tools”.