I think it's inevitable that every internet community will be overtaken by AI chatbots. While that may initially be a problem for social media platforms that rely on people watching ads, they will capitalize on an even bigger market- advertising directly to the bots themselves. When bots gain functionality to make purchases on behalf of their user, advertisers will compete to influence them.
People will grow so trusting of their AI agents that they will allow them free reign to make decisions on which products or services to buy, so they will in effect become the primary decision maker of that household. And that's who advertisers target. By then, the advertisers themselves will be mostly AI guided as well, so it will be AI influencing AI, all at hyperspeed through countless iterations.
I shudder to think how this world will look, but it will happen sooner than we expect.
I love Stephenson’s books, but his interpretation of his own work is baffling. Hes like the reverse of the Torment Nexus meme, where he writes a book about the Torment Nexus that reads like a cautionary tale, but then he does an interview where it turns out he’s earnestly excited about the prospect of a private company building the Torment Nexus for profit. Legitimately one of the more extreme examples of Silicon Valley brain out there.
His last book was just too reddit brained for me. I don't know if I'll be picking up anymore after that, which is a shame because I really used to enjoy his work. Maybe it's just me moving left, but I swear he's gotten worse over the years.
Nah, you’re right, he’s past his peak. He had a great run in the 90s/00s, but his more recent work has been getting less compelling and less consistent. I don’t think his politics have gotten worse, it’s just that his output isn’t good enough to make up for them anymore.