Transforming agency through generative midtended cognition. Digital thinging with thinging things.
Abstract: How can we make sense of the new forms of creativity and agency that generative technologies afford? This talk introduces the concept of , that explores the integration of generative AI technologies with human cognitive processes. The term “generative” reflects AI’s ability to iteratively produce structured outputs, while “midtended” captures the potential hybrid (human-AI) nature of the process. It stands between traditional conceptions of intended creation, understood as steered or directed from within, and extended processes that bring exo-biological processes into the creative process.
We examine the working of current generative technologies (based on multimodal transformer architectures typical of large language models like ChatGPT) to explain how they can transform human agency beyond what the conceptual resources of standard theories of extended cognition can capture. We suggest that the type of cognitive activity typical of the coupling between a human and generative technologies is closer (but not equivalent) to social cognition than to classical extended cognitive paradigms. Yet, it deserves a specific treatment. We provide an explicit definition of generative midtended cognition in which we treat interventions by AI systems as constitutive of the agent’s intentional creative processes.
Furthermore, we distinguish two dimensions of generative hybrid creativity: 1. Width: captures the sensitivity of the context of the generative process (from the single letter to the whole historical and surrounding data), 2. Depth: captures the granularity of iteration loops involved in the process. Generative midtended cognition stands in the middle depth between conversational forms of cognition in which complete utterances or creative units are exchanged, and micro-cognitive (e.g., neural) subpersonal processes. Finally, the talk discusses the potential risks and benefits of widespread generative AI adoption, including the challenges of authenticity, generative power asymmetry, and creative boost or atrophy. This talk is based on previous work in collaboration with Lola Almendros and Marta Pérez-Verdugo.
Recommended Readings:
- Barandiaran, X. E., & Almendros, L. S. (2025). Transforming agency: On the mode of existence of large language models. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-025-10094-3 - Barandiaran, X. E., & Pérez-Verdugo, M. (2025). Generative midtended cognition and Artificial Intelligence: Thinging with thinging things. Synthese, 205(4), 1–24.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-025-04961-4 - Barandiaran, X. E., & Rama, T. (2025). Sensorimotor teleology and goal-directedness. An organismic framework for normative behaviour.
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/25369
About the author: Dr. Xabier E. Barandiaran is a philosopher of mind and biological, cognitive, and social sciences, currently serving as a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). His work focuses on complex systems analysis and conceptual simulation models for theory building and applications. Dr. Barandiaran has a long-standing history with the University of Sussex, where he earned his MSc in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems and later returned to Sussex as a postdoctoral researcher (2009–2010) at the Center for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) and COGS. In addition to his academic career, he has led significant technopolitical projects, including serving as the coordinator of R&D for Barcelona’s City Council, where he spearheaded the design and deployment of Decidim.org, a digital platform for participatory democracy. He has published over 50 indexed works, including the co-authored books Sensorimotor Life (Oxford University Press, 2017), Decidim, a Technopolitical Network for Participatory Democracy (Springer, 2024), and recently co-edited Outonomy: fleshing out autonomy beyond the individual (Springer, 2025). More information at: https://xabier.barandiaran.net