In February 1943, during the dark days of World War II, a turning point was declared in Stalingrad. Amid a war that claimed millions of lives, humanity found itself forced to revisit the concepts of freedom, meaning, and existence. That same year, Jean-Paul Sartre published Being and Nothingness, aiming to redefine the cornerstones of how individuals perceive freedom, consciousness, and their relationship with the world.

In the midst of this turbulent era, Sartre boldly introduced the concepts of "being-in-itself" and "being-for-itself," offering a striking framework for understanding human consciousness.

According to Sartre, "being-for-itself" — or human consciousness — cannot simply accept the world as it is. It must continuously "negate" it, reconstruct it. This act of negation enables consciousness to distinguish itself from what surrounds it, creating the ability to observe the world from the outside.
"Nothingness" in Sartre’s thought is this very gap: a space that allows humans to place distance between themselves and objects, situations, even their own existence.

And it’s precisely here that freedom emerges. Through this act of negation, humans can reject what exists, reinterpret it, and reshape it according to their own choices.
Freedom, however, is not a privilege. Sartre argues it’s an unavoidable destiny.
Humans are condemned to be free. Consciousness is never static or passive; it carries the constant burden of making choices and with each choice, changing the world.

Today, Sartre’s existential questions deserve a fresh discussion, especially when we look at the rise of artificial intelligence, perhaps the most groundbreaking leap of our time.
Can AI, which “imitates” the human process of interpreting the world, ever truly reach the stage of "being-for-itself"?
Or will it always remain a "being-in-itself", a machine, nothing more?

Description: Where AI Already Excels

In Sartre’s framework, description is the act of defining an object or event exactly as it appears, without layering it with symbolic meaning, subjective feeling, or creative interpretation.
When you look at an oil painting and call it a "river," you’re engaging in description — even though technically, it’s only paint on a canvas. Description faithfully mirrors what is, without strangling the symbol.

It’s precisely here that AI already surpasses human capability.
By processing massive datasets at incredible speed, AI excels at tasks like visual recognition and text analysis.
It can break down the color palette of a painting, map the meter of a poem, or dissect the geometric composition of a work of art, all with microscopic precision.
It can detect patterns, frequencies, and structures invisible to the human eye.

Yet description alone is never enough to grasp the full depth of meaning.
As Sartre reminds us, describing something is only the first step; it doesn’t capture subjective experience, historical context, or emotional resonance.
AI can identify colors, techniques, or materials but it cannot feel the social upheaval of the artist’s time, the personal struggles behind the canvas, or the emotional shock a painting might evoke in a viewer.

Interpretation: Where AI Falls Short

Interpretation, for Sartre, is the act of going beyond description.
It’s where human freedom steps in: decoding symbols, navigating emotional landscapes, and constructing meaning.
Through interpretation, we don't just see objects; we engage with them, infusing them with personal significance.

AI’s ability to interpret remains fundamentally limited.
It can describe a poem’s structure but struggles to understand the layers of metaphor, the life events that shaped the poet, or the cultural codes hidden within.
Interpretation draws on lived experience, emotional intelligence, empathy, and the uniquely human gift of subjective freedom — none of which AI truly possesses.

Every individual brings their own history, emotions, and values into the act of interpretation.
AI, lacking this internal archive, can recognize metaphors but cannot truly experience their emotional weight or existential depth.

Human, AI, and Sartre: Freedom and Interpretation

From the moment we exist, we find ourselves in a world without fixed meanings.
Everything is in flux.
And so, every encounter demands not just description, but interpretation. A reweaving of meaning through the lens of our goals, emotions, and values.

Take an election result in Turkey.
Describing it would mean simply stating participation rates, vote percentages, and winners.
But interpreting it — understanding why a party secured 52% of the votes — requires diving into historical contexts, societal conditions, leadership narratives, and the emotional, ideological forces that shaped voters' decisions.

AI and Human Freedom

The rise of AI raises a deep double-edged question:
Will it expand human creativity, freedom, and interpretive power by granting easier access to information?
Or will it constrain us, trapping us within narrower, algorithmically dictated worlds?

Sartre’s concept of "the gaze of the Other" becomes freshly relevant here.
Traditionally, the "Other" was another human consciousness, whose presence shaped our sense of self.
But today, AI systems, recommendation engines, social media algorithms act as a new, non-human "gaze," subtly influencing our choices and identities.

Is AI a true "Other"?
It lacks emotions, subjective experiences, and moral judgment yet it still wields real power over how we perceive and act.

This forces us to rethink the boundaries of freedom.
If true freedom is the ability to endlessly reinterpret and rebuild meaning, then the question becomes:
How free are we when our interactions are shaped by parameters pre-set by AI?

Without careful balance, freedom may not expand,  it may quietly shrink, confined by invisible walls built by machines.

In Closing: A New Dialogue

Personally, I believe AI’s strength in description and data analysis can serve as a valuable tool especially in the hands of capable human interpreters.
AI could lay a strong analytical foundation, providing the "raw material" that human consciousness transforms into new realms of meaning.

Looking ahead, a creative dialogue between humans and machines seems inevitable.
AI, with its analytic power, offers the clay.
Human freedom, experience, and feeling shape it into something entirely new.

Maybe, just maybe, this collaboration could lead to a future where Sartre’s vision of free, meaning-making consciousness finds new life, intertwined with technology, but never overshadowed by it.

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