Intention economy
What is the 'intention economy,' and how can you protect yourself? In the 1990s, the internet was a bit of a wonderland. It was new and liberating and largely free of corporate and government influence . Thirty years later, I don’t think any of us would describe the internet this way. Worse, if subscribers to the Dead Internet Theory are correct, much of what we see on the internet today isn’t even created by humans anymore—a trend that is likely only to accelerate with the rise of generative AI technologies. However, a particular kind of generative AI technology, the AI chatbot, is set to usher in something even worse than a dying human internet. If researchers at the University of Cambridge are correct, we’re quickly approaching a new “intention economy,” where reports of our future actions will be sold to the highest bidder. And yes, that’s even scarier than it sounds. What is the intention economy? Right now, a large portion of the tech industry operates in a marketplace...