Are You Sure This is What You Really Want? Conversational Recommender Systems for Enhancing Human Autonomy

Recommender systems are widely used to help users navigate information overload in digital environments. While they are often portrayed as tools that enhance autonomy by optimizing choice and personalizing content, this article argues that many current recommender systems designs in fact undermine user autonomy. Drawing on a conception of autonomy in which the formation and configuration of preferences, particularly higher-level desires in the Frankfurtian sense, play a prominent role, we examin

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ethics.ai (8 August 2026), “Are You Sure This is What You Really Want? Conversational Recommender Systems for Enhancing Human Autonomy,” evidence record 17706, https://ethics.ai/record/17706 (originally published by Science and Engineering Ethics).

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