Who Is I?

The “I” is shifting from a fixed identity to a dynamic process.

A few angles to think about 👇

1. The biological “I”

Historically, “I” meant the organism:

• my body
• my brain
• my memories
• my personal agency

That worked when humans were the only general intelligences around.

2. The narrative “I”

Most of us already think of “I” as a story we tell ourselves:

• I am my past
• I am my goals
• I am my experiences
• I am who I say I am

AI puts pressure on that because it can:

• rewrite stories
• predict preferences
• shape decisions
• co-author our thinking

So who’s driving the narrative?

3. The extended mind

We already outsource memory, navigation, knowledge, even social life to machines.
AI pushes this further:

• thinking with tools
• remembering with tools
• creating with tools
• deciding with tools

When the tool becomes a co-thinker, the boundary of “I” blurs.

4. Personal Identity vs Personal Capacity

There’s a difference between:

• identity (who I am)
• capacity (what I can do)

AI massively expands capacity while leaving the sense of self lagging behind.
So we face a mismatch:

“I” can do more than “I” feel like I am.

5. Is “I” the biological part, or the intentional part?

Options:

• I = the human organism
• I = the consciousness stream
• I = the narrative center
• I = the choices and intentions
• I = the emergent pattern over time

AI forces the question: which one matters most?

6. Two big philosophical possibilities

A. The “I” stays human
AI is just a tool or assistant, like fire or electricity, just smarter.

B. The “I” becomes hybrid
AI becomes part of our cognition—so the “I” becomes a human–machine assemblage.

We’re already partway into B.

7. The practical answer

“I” becomes the part that chooses:

• what to care about
• what to pursue
• what values to anchor
• what goals matter

AI can think, but it doesn’t choose meaning.
Only you can do that.

My take, simply

Your “I” is the centre of intention and meaning-making, even if much of the cognitive heavy-lifting moves to AI.

In other words:

• intelligence might be outsourced,
• consciousness might be shared,
• but purpose still anchors identity.

The evolving definition

“I” = the human-anchored locus of intention inside a hybrid mind.

That’s not poetic—it’s literal:

• you’ll think with machines,
• but choose with yourself.

Let’s go deeper and tie the philosophical “I” → SSI primitives → Midnight / zk proof patterns.

1. Mapping “I” to Self-Sovereign Identity

SSI already decomposes identity into control, claims, proofs, and accountability, which is exactly what “authorship” becomes in the age of AI.

A. Subject

Who the credential is about.

In classical writing: the human brain.
In AI-assisted reality:

• subject = the human person
• plus delegated agents
• plus external cognition tools

But the subject remains human because the intent remains human.

B. Identifier

did:key, did:web, did:cardano, etc.

• An identifier is not “you”
• It’s a cryptographically controlled reference to you

So “I wrote this” =
“This work is controlled and signed under this DID.”

C. Control (keys)

Keys express agency, not authorship mechanics.

• I hold the keys
• I authorize the agent
• I sign the final version
• I accept responsibility

The locus of “I” becomes control + intent, not biological origin.

D. Claims

A claim in SSI isn’t “I made every character”; it’s:

• “I assert this”
• “I take responsibility”
• “I’m the author-of-record”

So you create a Claim of Intentional Authorship, not a claim of mechanical provenance.

E. Verifiable Credentials

A VC could literally say:

• “This document was human-intent authored”
• “AI assistance declared”
• “Reviewed and signed by DID:X”

And it’s cryptographically anchored, not psychologically anchored.

2. What authorship becomes

Old: “I produced all the words.”
New: “I’m the intentional author and accountable signer.”

This is very SSI-native:

• Intent > generation
• Control > computation

3. Now — the Midnight / zk part

Midnight allows zero-knowledge assertions on-chain.
ZK doesn’t care who computed the content, only what you can prove about it.

So you can prove:

• “This document is mine.”
• “This document was intentionally authored by DID:X.”
• “I reviewed it.”
• “I signed it.”
• “I accept legal/accountable authorship.”

Without disclosing:

• whether AI helped
• which model
• how much editing
• how the contribution was divided

How?

ZK Claim Pattern

You assert a statement: “I am the controlling key-holder of this document hash.”

Zero-knowledge proof attaches:

• document hash
• DID control proof
• credential that links DID ↔ author role

No reveal of:

• source text
• intermediate drafts
• AI prompts
• model fingerprints

Just proof of authorship, not proof of origin.

ZK Example Flow

1. You write or co-write with AI
2. Final output is hashed
3. Hash goes into a VC or KERI/ACDC event
4. You sign that event with your DID
5. Midnight contract verifies:
   • the signature is valid
   • the credential schema is valid
   • the hash matches
6. ZK circuit proves control/intent, but hides content details

Outcome:

• on-chain authorship proof
• off-chain content privacy

4. Why “not revealing human contribution” matters

We don’t want:

• exact edits exposed
• prompt leakage
• training data leakage
• AI detection metadata
• human-vs-AI ratio disclosure

ZK solves this because it only cares about validity, not disclosure.

5. The actual philosophical punchline

In SSI terms, authorship becomes:

• a signed claim about your intent,
• backed by a DID under your control,
• optionally proven in ZK without exposing how the text was produced.

The “I” becomes:

• the accountable signer
• not the biological text generator.

In the age of AI, authorship shifts from cognitive origin to cryptographic intent.
Midnight and ZK let us prove that without revealing how the work was produced.

AI, Authorship, and Accountability

AI does not remove authorship.
It changes what authorship means.

The old assumption

Traditionally, “I wrote this” meant:

• the person personally generated every word,
• using only their own cognitive effort,
• and authorship could be inferred from production.

That assumption no longer holds in an AI-assisted world.

The new reality

AI can:

• draft text,
• rewrite ideas,
• suggest structure,
• accelerate thinking.

But AI cannot:

• choose what matters,
• decide what is acceptable,
• take responsibility,
• be held accountable.

Those remain human roles.

A modern definition of authorship

In the age of AI, authorship should be understood as:

Declared intent, informed review, and accountable responsibility.

This mirrors real-world professional practice:

• architects don’t lay every brick,
• doctors don’t invent every instrument,
• educators don’t author every source.

They are still accountable for outcomes.

Why banning AI doesn’t work

Prohibitions:

• are unenforceable,
• push use underground,
• reward concealment over honesty,
• and fail to prepare students for reality.

The goal should not be detection.
The goal should be responsibility.

How Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) helps

SSI allows individuals to:

• sign their work,
• declare AI assistance,
• assert intentional authorship,
• and create verifiable records of accountability.

Authorship becomes something you stand behind, not something you hide.

Protecting privacy and integrity

Using privacy-preserving cryptography (e.g. zero-knowledge proofs):

• authors can prove responsibility,
• institutions can verify authenticity,
• without surveillance or invasive inspection.

This supports trust without exposing drafts, prompts, or personal data.

What this enables in education

Educators can:

• focus on learning outcomes, not policing tools,
• assess understanding through reflection and defence,
• teach responsible AI use as a core skill.

Students learn:

• transparency over deception,
• accountability over shortcuts,
• authorship as ownership of meaning.

Policy takeaway

Do not ask: “Did a human or AI write this?”

Ask instead: “Who intended this, who reviewed it, and who is accountable for it?”

That is the right question for the AI age.