Over the next year, I expect to see both trends accelerating: on one hand, a once-in-a-generation realignment in text-based social networking that will further entrench Meta as the biggest player in the space; and on the other, the proliferation of generative AI into every digital surface that we touch, and much of the infrastructure that powers it. The trends will have their highest-profile collision to date in the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election, where platform policies and enforcement mechanisms could once again prove hugely consequential — for American democracy, and for the platforms themselves. Just thinking about it all is enough to make me want to go lie down for a couple weeks — which, upon sending out today’s newsletter, is exactly what I intend to do. Before that, though, I have a few more thoughts on what we can expect in 2024, and Zoë has some to share as well.