[klabb3]

Mainstream people oriented social media is indeed really bad. But is it the technology or the incentives governing it? In other words, is instagram bad because of pictures, or because of engagement-optimized recommendations and endless feeds? What even is the difference between the medium and the message in a world of hyper-personalization?

When social media came we did as we always do; we talk about the potential of the emerging technology. Connecting people across the world, learning, sharing experiences. I don’t think we were wrong in the assessment, but I do think many of us were missing that potential is not the governing force - it’s the incentives.

Now, people are doing the exact same thing with gen AI: talking about the potential. But what’s the business model? Will our kids get excellent private tutors with endless knowledge, or a barrage of post-truth content designed to market, sell, influence, nudge and confuse?