The Feeling of Control Slipping Away
7 hours ago
- #Internet Culture
- #AI and Society
- #Human Agency
- In 2018, Max Read described 'the Inversion,' where bots outnumbered humans online, eroding trust and reality.
- Today, AI agents dominate the internet, generating content and interacting with algorithms, deepening feelings of manipulation and paranoia.
- AI is causing a crisis of human agency, with people feeling passive and unmoored as technology encroaches on work, art, and culture.
- Anxiety over agency is evident in reactions to AI-driven layoffs, reliance on coding tools, and concerns over AI's impact on creativity and thinking.
- Instances like AI-generated stories winning prizes highlight the blurring lines between human and AI content, leading to debates and mistrust.
- AI companies promote empowerment, but the tools often automate human roles, reversing the early internet's promise of user-generated engagement and collaboration.
- Humans are increasingly in a passive 'human-in-the-loop' role, reacting to machine interactions rather than actively creating or consulting.
- The internet is becoming a customer-service medium where AI provides answers, negating the human need for consultation and collaboration.
- Backlash against AI includes protests and public comments, as people seek agency in the physical world amid digital disorientation.
- AI's focus on information over humanity risks lulling people into accepting a paradigm where they feed data to machines that learn to mimic them.