Artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies are transforming many consumption
activities, powering breakthroughs that expand the human experience by enhancing human
capabilities, performance, and creativity. While this explains the consumer enthusiasm and rapid
adoption of these technologies, AI systems can also have the opposite effect: reducing and
constraining the range of experiences that are available to consumers. This paper examines the
mechanisms through which AI can expand and constrain the human experience, considering
individual, interpersonal, and societal processes. Our analysis uncovers a complex interplay
between the advantages of AI and its inadvertent negative repercussions, which potentially
restrict human autonomy, self-identity, relational dynamics, and social behavior. In this paper,
we propose three different mechanisms at the core of these constraining forces: parametric
reductionism, agency transference and regulated expression. Our exploration of these
mechanisms highlights the risks connected to system design and points to questions and
implications for future researchers and policy makers.