Human beings have outsourced tasks to novel technologies throughout human history. The pocket calculator has replaced calculation by hand. The car has made it easier to move from one place to another. We use a robot hoover without ethical concerns over the loss of our own skills in cleaning. At the same time, deskilling due to outsourcing tasks to artificial intelligence is clearly wrong in some areas of life. When should we avoid outsourcing tasks to artificial agents and why? When is deskilling a normal part of technological change? Currently, it is unclear which tasks, skills, and capacities should be outsourced to artificial agents, and when such outsourcing should be avoided.

In this paper, we argue that those tasks, skills, and capacities that are central to individual and collective autonomy of human agents should not outsourced to artificial agents. First, we clarify the main concepts: skill, task, capacity, ability, and deskilling. Tasks are specific goal-oriented activities that lead to an outcome when successful. Skills are abilities that can be learned. Capacities are possibilities for learning a skill. We present four arguments that support this view, the argument from unhealthy dependence, the argument on electromagnetic pulse, the argument on the value of autonomy, and the argument based on the right to open future. Then, we answer two objections, the objection based on skill and the objection based on history of civilizations and I discuss the implications of this view.