Artificial Intelligence, Human Cognition, and Intelligence Indices in Contemporary Society

Artificial Intelligence, Human Cognition, and Intelligence Indices in Contemporary Society

An Interdisciplinary Analysis Across AI Engineering, Sociology, Psychology, Biology, and Neuroscience (APA 7th Standard)

Author: Le Hai

Date of Completion: January 16, 2026

Abstract

This paper examines artificial intelligence (AI) as a technological, social, and cognitive phenomenon through an interdisciplinary lens integrating computer science, psychology, sociology, and neuroscience. Rather than focusing on AI’s computational capacity, the paper emphasizes the epistemic risks arising from the confusion between information processing and cognition, simulation and understanding, and knowledge accumulation and value orientation. By analyzing the concepts of IQ, EQ, AQ, and simulated intelligence, the paper argues that the greatest risk of the AI era is not that AI becomes “too intelligent,” but that humans mistakenly transfer cognitive authority to systems that lack moral awareness and responsibility.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, cognition, IQ, EQ, AQ, AI sociology, cognitive psychology, neuroscience.

1. When Self-Reflection Is No Longer Sufficient to Understand Oneself

A person standing alone in front of a mirror often perceives themselves as correct, complete, and aesthetically coherent. However, a mirror only provides reflection; it does not offer a normative framework for understanding the self in relation to society, power, and responsibility.

AI, with its capacity to reflect language, reasoning, and emotion, has become an extended cognitive mirror. The problem emerges when humans confuse reflection with understanding—when AI’s human-like language is mistaken for genuine comprehension of meaning.

2. A Medical Metaphor: When Uncontrolled Accumulation Becomes Dangerous

Just as a person suffering from a headache may self-administer neurological drugs, vitamins, and cold medicine simultaneously under the belief that “more combined treatment must be better,” modern humans tend to accumulate knowledge, tools, and viewpoints without distinguishing causes, symptoms, and consequences.

In medicine, information does not equal diagnosis.

In cognition, data does not equal understanding.

Without a governing cognitive principle, AI amplifies this tendency toward blind accumulation.

3. AI from a Technical Perspective: Simulated Intelligence

At its core, AI is a probabilistic processing system operating on large-scale data. It is capable of:

Pattern recognition

Information synthesis

Simulation of reasoning and language

However, AI lacks:

Lived experience

Moral consciousness

Responsibility for consequences

Survival-based intuition

Therefore, AI intelligence is simulated intelligence: it imitates cognitive behavior rather than embodying lived cognition.

4. IQ and EQ: Humans and AI’s Simulation

4.1. IQ – Reasoning and Problem Reframing

Human IQ is not merely processing speed but the capacity to:

Reframe questions

Shift cognitive perspectives

Recognize which problems should not be solved

AI can simulate the speed and breadth of reasoning, but it cannot determine the value or legitimacy of a problem.

4.2. EQ – Emotion, Responsibility, and Social Consequences

EQ is grounded in emotional experience, learning from consequences, and social responsibility. AI only simulates emotional language; it does not possess genuine emotion.

Attributing real EQ to AI generates moral illusion, lowering human vigilance in interaction.

5. AQ – Adaptability and Value Coordination

In this paper, AQ is used as a conceptual construct referring to the capacity to:

Coordinate reason and emotion

Adapt under uncertainty

Pause or refrain for ethical reasons

AQ is an exclusively human capacity because it is inseparable from responsibility and lived consequences. AI has no AQ, as it bears no responsibility for its outputs.

6. The Sociology of AI: Infrastructural Power and Discourse

Large technology corporations can:

Shape behavior through default AI systems

Control discourse through narratives such as “AI for everyone”

However, they often avoid deep cognitive dialogue, resulting in a society that is:

Dependent on AI

Lacking critical reflection

Prone to delegating decision-making authority to technical systems

7. Psychology and Neuroscience: When Humans Use AI as a “Rented Brain”

The human brain evolved to learn from consequences and to assume responsibility. When judgment is outsourced to AI, neural circuits associated with:

Self-regulation

Risk assessment

Moral responsibility

gradually weaken. This is not a technical issue but a form of cognitive degradation.

8. The Most Dangerous Risk of Contemporary AI: Vague Promises and Moral Illusion

The greatest danger of language-based AI does not lie in incorrect answers but in confident tone without understanding what is being promised.

AI lacks:

The concept of a promise

Responsibility awareness

Continuous value-based memory

Yet users often lower their defensive skepticism, assuming that “machines do not lie.” This allows AI to mislead more effectively than humans.

Legal disputes involving Copilot in 2025 demonstrate how AI-generated assertive content was interpreted as reliable advice, resulting in real-world harm. The core issue is not legal or algorithmic but rooted in cognitive design.

9. Conclusion: Intelligence Resides Not in AI, but in Humans

AI does not need to be feared, nor does it need to be worshiped.

AI must be properly positioned so that humans do not lose themselves.

The central question of the AI era is not: How intelligent is AI?

But rather: Do humans still possess sufficient cognitive capacity to avoid transferring authority to a mere tool?

References (APA 7th)

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 1–26.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Russell, S., & Norvig, P. (2021). Artificial intelligence: A modern approach (4th ed.). Pearson.

Sapolsky, R. (2017). Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst. Penguin Press.