Public Reason: It's not Mark Zuckerburg's "where are my legs!?" metaverse. It's not the CyberVerse of "Burning Chrome". What is it instead?:

Om Malik: Will A.I. Eat the Browser?: ‘I’m addicted to Apple’s Vision Pro…. a nearly perfect entertainment device…. In a world where AR, VR, and voice-controlled systems are becoming more integrated into daily life, the browser’s limitations become glaringly obvious…. Over the next decade the browser will need to adapt or die…. [Hitherto] humans have had to adapt to… a document-centric web experience… rather than technology truly adapting to human needs…. Josh Miller… of <thebrowser.company/?utm…… wants… rather than having applications dictate how we interact with information, our usage patterns and preferences will shape how information and services are presented to us…<crazystupidtech.com/arc…>

The key problem in creating any information system is how to create and maintain a web of reliability and trust, so that what propagates is useful, important and relevant information rather than deceptive and damaging misinformation. That means that highlighting the answers to the “what are your sources?” and “what are your analytical protocols?” questions are absolutely key to every bundled-up piece of informational content. And that means that to the extent that MAMLMs are placed between you and the real sources and tuned and trained by professionals to tell you what you want to hear, the situation becomes increasingly fraught.

MOAR:

Om Malik: Musings on Media in the Age of AI: ‘The internet was originally envisioned as a place for connection, collaboration, and discovery. But over time, it has been distorted by business models that prioritize engagement metrics over meaningful interaction. Discovery has long been the open web’s greatest challenge, with search engines turning it into an SEO game and social platforms creating algorithmic echo chambers. AI platforms are making discovery almost irrelevant. You stay still, but your AI agent goes out and fetches, distills, and synthesizes the content and renders it in whatever format you want — audio, video, or text. This is the future. None of the media business models will work in the future — neither advertising nor paywalls. Today’s content deals, like the one The Atlantic signed with OpenAI, are akin to the sugar high you get from soda. The sugar high is followed by the inevitable crash… <om.co/2024/12/21/dark-m…>

And:

Om Malik: Perception Is Reality: ‘I’ve learned the hard way that these days, everything read on the internet must be thoroughly fact-checked to separate reality from engagement bait…. The Greeks used games, theater, assemblies, law courts, and religious festivals to shape attitudes and opinions. During the Spanish Armada era, the Spanish employed pamphlets and letters to spread false or counter-narratives…. The golden age of propaganda dawned in 1914 with World War I, and the term soon became part of everyday language. Since then, propaganda has evolved alongside changing communication technologies. Pamphlets, newsletters, and newspapers were quickly supplemented by radio and television, and later by the internet. We’ve indeed come a long way…. crazystupidtech.com/arc…. It comes as no surprise that we’ve seen propaganda move to AI and chatbots… a battleground for control over historical narratives and information flows… <om.co/2024/12/25/percep…>

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References:

• Malik, Om. 2024. "Musings on Media in the Age of AI." om.co/2024/12/21/dark-m…, December 21, 2024. URL: om.co/2024/12/21/dark-m…

• Malik, Om. 2024. "Perception Is Reality." om.co/2024/12/21/dark-m…, December 25, 2024. URL: om.co/2024/12/21/dark-m…

• Malik, Om. 2024. "Will A.I. Eat the Browser?" Crazy Stupid Tech. URL: crazystupidtech.com/arc….

• Vinge, Vernor. 1981. True Names. New York: Dell Publishing. URL: archive.org/details/tru….