Uncanny Valley: The Phenomenon of Humans Rejecting Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Between the two opposing groups reacting to the intensive development of artificial intelligence (AI), the group that views AI as increasingly resembling humans seems the most logical in its rejection. The first group considers AI a result of development, with a trajectory parallel to human evolution. Today’s technological reality can be traced through the development paths of previous technologies linked to human needs, such as the printing press, steam engine, manufacturing systems, computing, and information technology, all the way to AI, which emerged in line with the interests of human evolution. The continuity between human evolution and its accompanying technology was discussed by Tom Chatfield in 2019 in ‘Technology in Deep Time: How it Evolves Alongside Us’. He noted that human ancestors were no different from other animals in the initial creation and development of tools, with some even developing and passing down specific practices, like New Caledonian crows that use tools or create simple hooks from plants to obtain food. The difference is that humans could transform these skills through experimentation by combining natural forces, such as using fire for cooking and later for smelting metal, or gravity for levers, inclined planes, pulleys, wheels, and counterweights, and mental power into symbolic art, numeracy, reading, and writing. Economist W. Brian Arthur, in his 2009 book ‘The Nature of Technology’, similarly stated that all new technologies are fundamentally combinations of previous technologies, all following an evolutionary process resembling life itself. For instance, the printing press developed by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 was based on pre-existing technologies, and its entire lineage can be traced back to the earliest technological sequences. In this view, the existence of technology as a companion to human evolution is always aligned with human interests. The second group, however, believes that technological development does not always run parallel to the trajectory of human evolution and does not always support human interests. This includes a developmental path that initially runs parallel but at some point surpasses the processes experienced by humans. This state is explained by Tim Mucci in 2024 in ‘What is The Technological Singularity?’, which describes a theoretical scenario called the technological singularity. This is a scenario of uncontrolled technological growth that cannot be reversed, triggering unpredictable changes in human civilisation. The singularity is driven by AI that surpasses human cognitive abilities, at which point the AI can improve its capabilities independently. The term singularity, a mathematical concept, describes a point where machines not only match but exceed human intelligence. In an evolutionary framework, this cycle continues at a rapid pace, and humans are unable to predict, mitigate, or stop the process. The evolution of technology that gave rise to AI is not only autonomous but also capable of innovation beyond human understanding and control. Technology produces machines that create more sophisticated versions of themselves, thereby displacing humans as the most superior entity. This point could be either good news or a disaster for humanity. When the second group perceives it as a disaster, the existence of AI is seen as a threat, accompanied by a change in its intensity. The threat evolves from AI producing errors, to AI being misused, to AI replacing human workers, and finally to AI posing a total threat to human existence. This escalation of intensity places humans in an unpleasant position, still within civilisation but without a role. Therefore, those holding the second view tend to reject AI from its very inception. One form of this rejection manifests as a psychological symptom called the uncanny valley. The phenomenon was first coined by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970. The explanation is that the uncanny valley, originally termed ‘bukimi no tani’, is a gradual decline in a person’s feeling of comfort. The valley forms as comfort diminishes when observing an artificial entity that looks and behaves like a human but is not quite natural. A robot dancing to a song but with jerky movements, a chatbot responding in conversation but with a machine-like voice, or an interactive replica acting as a human companion but requiring periodic system updates, all evoke a horrifying sensation. This is especially true when human cognition oscillates between seeing the machine as human and the human as a machine. The discomfort reaction manifests as disgust, anxiety, and intimidation, peaking as the artificial entity becomes more human-like. When rationality manages to control the discomfort, the decline reverses, creating the image of a valley: a curve that dips and then rises again. Luis Echavarri, in 2025, elaborated on this process in ‘The Uncanny Valley: Why Non-Human Characters Dominate AI Narratives’. He explained that the human mind recognises social and emotional cues when something created is ‘almost’ human but falls short, leading to a split attitude: a liking for the resemblance to humans, but also discomfort because the resemblance is not perfect.