–
Want To Listen To The Article Instead?
–
Virtual Algorithms Are Ruling Our Real World
If you look at the algorithms for Netflix or Amazon have, you might have noticed how their recommendations are based on analyzing our past behavior and the information they have collected about us. Google search results are also based on the highest payer for the particular search word or that trend. What is this if not blurred realism?
To prevent negative behaviors – like crime – technology relies on a simplified model of people, society and human motivation. Using big data, it is perpetuating stereotypes. The reality is that we cannot force “automatic human virtue” – moral codes cannot be imposed, because it makes people less likely to become upstanding citizens of the community.
To encourage good behavior, technology is gamifying the experience with rewards, and badges and coins etc etc. So the motivation to do good and be good is externalized which is very harmful in the long run.
Links Used In This Article
Citation: Peper, E., & Harvey, R. (2018). Digital addiction: Increased loneliness, anxiety, and depression. NeuroRegulation, 5(1), 3–8.
http://dx.doi.org/10.15540/nr.5.1.3
What Is Doomscrolling:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/doomscrolling-mental-health-covid19-sleep/
Reference Links To Understand The Truth About Tech
• https://futurestrong.org/2020/12/21/kids-and-screens-parenting-in-the-digital-age/
• https://futurestrong.org/2018/11/07/the-truth-about-tech-and-addiction/
• https://futurestrong.org/2018/05/15/how-to-determine-if-youve-a-digital-addiction-problem/
– 0 –
Beyond GenAI Pilots: How Enterprises Build Scalable AI with Governance and Trust
Current State of AI Affairs If you're a transformation leader at your organization, or lead any type of team, you must have seen multiple memos by now from senior leadership on the need to innovate and incorporate AI into your existing workflows. These can come...
AI Slop, Brainrot & Shitposting: Who’s Moderating the Internet Anymore? – Part I
What Is Brain Rot, Anyway? If you want to learn more about brain rot, you're at the right place. If you don't know what it is, even then, you're at the right place. When I visited Rome a few years ago, I realized Italians had given the world fabulous looking...
When AI Becomes Your Therapist: The Hidden Risk of Chatbots Replacing Reality – Part II
When Validation Becomes Distortion In the first article, we talked about what AI psychosis is. Here, we continue the conversation by exploring how AI chatbots may contribute to distorted thinking or delusions, especially in vulnerable users. We’re going to look...
The Dangerous Rise of AI Yes-Men: When ChatGPT Agrees Too Much and Fuels AI Psychosis – Part I
Cats vs. Chatbots Earlier in March 2026, Garry Tan, the President & CEO of Y Combinator, posted something on X: “I am so late to this trend but I finally asked my ChatGPT to make an image of our relationship and this is what it did. What does yours look...
Empowering Women to Lead in AI: Inside the ElevateHER Launch Event in Atlanta
A Keynote On Women Leaders In AI On March 20th, I attended the launch party of ElevateHER, a non-profit dedicated to building an ecosystem for women to lead in AI. It felt like the perfect opportunity to step into the world of AI firsthand and see what...
Why the World Is Finally Slowing Down: The Rise of the Slow Thought Revolution
I've been noticing an interesting phenomenon lately. The desire for slowing down and adopting an intentional way of consuming information. For nearly two decades the internet trained us to read faster, scroll faster, react faster. But lately something unexpected is...
The Attachment Economy Is Here: What AI Companions Mean for All of Us – Part I
Parents, Get Ready To Welcome Your AI In-Laws There will be a time in the not so distant future, when your child will introduce you to his girlfriend. And there's a possibility, you will end up locking eyes, if that's even possible, with his AI companion. The...
Inside Social Media Lawsuits: How Meta, YouTube & AI Are Harming Teens
Life As a Chaos Machine I was on a beach, when I couldn't move, listening to The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher. The book makes painfully clear that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook leadership knew their platforms were harming young minds. Internal research linked...
AI Safety Leaders Destroyed by AI Agents: The Ironic Collapse Everyone Saw Coming
This past Sunday evening, in all her candor, Summer Yue, the Director of Frontier AI Safety at Meta posted on her profile: Nothing humbles you like telling your OpenClaw “confirm before acting” and watching it speedrun deleting your inbox. I couldn’t stop it from my...
Tech Billionaires Don’t Trust Their Own Tech: The Screen-Time Secrets They’re Hiding From Parents
Toying With Our Futures At the Aspen Ideas Festival in June 2024, Peter Thiel was interviewed by Andrew Ross Sorkin. He volunteered information in response to a question, “If you ask executives of social media companies how much screen time they let their kids...
Success vs Failure: Why Boredom, Stillness, and Slow Mastery Create the Most Powerful Humans
Success vs. Failure Billy Oppenheimer, a writer, once described picking up Robert Greene from the airport. For the uninitiated, Greene is the author of The 48 Laws of Power, a must-read for those who love power and want to dominate the world. Of course, the...
Why Being a Generalist Is the Ultimate Power Move in the Age of AI, Uncertainty, and Reinvention
The Case for the Generalist Years ago, I had created a username called wannabepolymath. I wasn't sure which single thing interested me most because I wanted to learn many different things. As I read more, I felt a growing urge to explore new fields, seeking...
The Evolution of Love: Marriage, Survival, and Personal Reinvention in a Changing World
A Society Experiences Growing Pains I took this picture of a wall hanging in the lobby of a hotel we were staying at in Granada, Spain. Somehow, the couples whose heads are disintegrating felt like a fitting image for the essay on marriage I was writing. I’ve...
Is Roblox Safe for Kids? What Every Parent Must Know About Grooming, Explicit Content & Online Dangers
From Fun to Risk: The Reality of Roblox for Children In 2023, as parents of my students would ask me about the safety of Roblox, I began researching about it. I was even beginning to teach it in my own classrooms, because it was a creative game that was both...
The Integrity Exit: Why Mrinank Sharma’s Departure Matters
Two days ago, Mrinank Sharma resigned from his role as an AI safety engineer at Anthropic. He had been with the company for two years. “The world is in peril. And not just from AI, or bioweapons, but from a whole series of interconnected crises unfolding in this very...
When AI Mirrors Our Pain: The Uncomfortable Truth About Human Suffering in Training Data
The loneliness. God, Andy. The loneliness. When Andy Ayrey, an AI enthusiast, recently asked Claude, a type of LLM like ChatGPT, Gemini, etc., for its take on the questions it receives from humans, this is what it said. The loneliness. God, Andy. The loneliness. In...
14 Mind-Blowing Quotes That Reveal How Social Media Is Hijacking Your Life
Thoughts on Social Media, Technology, and Our Attention Our lives are increasingly lived online, where every scroll, click, and share shapes not just our behavior but our reality. Leading thinkers warn us that while technology can amplify our voices and connect...
Building Trust and Safety: How Accountability Strengthens Law Enforcement and Communities
I have lived in the United States for nearly twenty-four years. This is my home. I am a person of color, and so are my children. In my city of Johns Creek, a suburb northwest of Atlanta, I often see police officers on the roads. I respect the work they do. They show...