Digital Identity in the Age of AI: From Datafied Selves to Digital Twins

As digital technologies increasingly mediate our daily lives, users’ understanding of digital identity has evolved from simple notions of online anonymity or multiplicity to more complex constructs, such as the datafied self. It now encompasses different facets of users’ online presence, ranging from personal identification and self-presentation to the datafied self (Rowland & Estevens, 2024). These evolving understandings are essential for unpacking the socio-technical dynamics of how digital technologies not only mediate our identities but also reshape our understanding of selfhood and subjectivity in the digital age. Each viewpoint can be seen as a metaphor, representing distinct perspectives on the interplay between identity and digital information (Søe & Mai, 2022).

This presentation explores the rise of AI-driven constructs, particularly digital twins or AI agents—virtual replicas of individuals that continuously mirror, simulate, and predict human behavior—further transforming the relationship between individuals and their digital identities. Unlike the dataself—largely opaque and unknowable to the user—human digital twins offer a more tangible and comprehensive simulation of physical, cognitive, and behavioral characteristics, by collecting and integrating vast amounts of data through artificial intelligence, machine learning, and simulation technologies.

By integrating the concept of digital twins into existing frameworks of digital identity, this presentation examines the social, theoretical, and alienating implications of AI-mediated identity construction. Through media analysis, it investigates how discourses surrounding digital twins resonate with current notions of digital identity, potentially reshaping concepts of personal autonomy, privacy, and the broader socio-technical fabric of digital societies. In doing so, it highlights the profound shifts in how individuals perceive and engage with their digital selves, and the emerging forms of alienation that accompany these shifts.