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The Five Stages Of AI Grief - NOEMA
This Noema essay considers responses to AI and argues for futures beyond utopian or dystopian views.
About The Five Stages Of AI Grief - NOEMA
This essay by Benjamin Bratton, director of the Antikythera program at the Berggruen Institute and a professor at the University of California, San Diego, examines how people respond to artificial intelligence. It argues that reactions such as anger, fear, and denial can be understood through the five stages of grief that Elizabeth Kübler-Ross described, and it places AI within Sigmund Freud's account of modern "Copernican" decenterings of human self-understanding. The essay states that its aim is to look beyond utopian and dystopian views toward futures that are neither.
The available text is an excerpt that ends partway through the argument, so the essay's proposed paths forward are not fully visible here. It is an interpretive essay rather than a tool or service, and its discussion of specific events and reactions is presented as the author's reading.
Key features
- Applies Kübler-Ross's five stages of grief to public and critical responses to AI
- Frames AI as a possible Copernican trauma, following Freud's account of decenterings
- Discusses reactions from critics, policymakers, and people who foresee catastrophe
- Uses recent industry and academic events, such as an OpenAI retreat, as examples
Best for: Readers interested in the cultural, historical, and philosophical responses to artificial intelligence.
Good for
- Connects a well-known framework from psychology with debates about AI
- Written by named authors with stated institutional affiliations
Watch out for
- The available excerpt ends before the essay's conclusions about better futures
- As an interpretive essay, its claims about AI are argued rather than documented in the excerpt
The Five Stages Of AI Grief - NOEMA at a glance
- Official website
- noemamag.com/the-five-stages-of-ai-grief
- Category
- Search & Reference › Articles & Essays
- Type
- Publication
- Platforms
- Web
- Language
- English
- Last checked
- Oct 6, 2026 · Online when checked
- Listed
- Oct 5, 2026
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The Five Stages Of AI Grief - NOEMA FAQ
What framework does the essay use to describe reactions to AI?
It uses the five stages of grief identified by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross in 1969: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The essay applies these as AI Denial, AI Anger, AI Bargaining, AI Depression, and AI Acceptance.
Who wrote the essay?
The essay is credited to Benjamin Bratton, who is identified as director of the Antikythera program at the Berggruen Institute and a professor at the University of California, San Diego.
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