Abstract:

The concept of Intentional Technology Proxies (ITP) describes how humans deliberately engage with digital tools to augment cognitive, creative, and operational capacities. Traditionally, humans have been the primary agents, directing proxies to achieve well-defined objectives. The rapid evolution of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) disrupts this dynamic by enabling systems to act as autonomous users, capable of initiating, adapting, and optimising processes with minimal human intervention. Drawing on Activity Theory and Actor–Network Theory, this paper conceptualises the role reversal as a transformation of the socio-technical system in which GenAI shifts from being a mediating artefact or peripheral actor to the central agent directing activity. Through the lens of Distributed Cognition, this inversion represents a redistribution of cognitive authority, with humans increasingly functioning as proxies, training, fine-tuning, and supplying contextual knowledge to the AI. Over time, such AI users may develop specialised capabilities that exceed human proficiency, raising critical issues of authorship, accountability, and trust. Insights from Machine Agency theory frame the ethical and societal implications of delegating autonomy to non-human actors, including the challenges of governance, transparency, and maintaining human intentionality in AI-enabled ecosystems. Scenarios from healthcare, education, and creative industries illustrate the transformative potential and risks of this emerging human–AI configuration. By re-imagining ITP through these theoretical lenses, the paper offers a novel framework for understanding the evolving balance of agency, responsibility, and co-evolution between humans and intelligent machines.

Keywords:

Generative Artificial Intelligence, Intentional Technology Proxies, Human–AI Collaboration, Technological Agency, Ethical Implications.