I’m grateful this is being framed in the context of this race, not just as a tech‑industry curiosity. If we keep getting AI governance wrong, it’s going to hit our information environment, our farms and food system, our democracy, and basic safety.

The premise of Mandated Happiness feels uncomfortably close to present reality. An AI using social media to divide, distract, and jeep people angry at each other instead of at the system. I’m downloading it partly for entertainment, partly as field notes, and partly to see how your forecasting holds up.

As someone who tracks information warfare and how AI is being weaponized and manipulated, what worries me most right now is how quietly these systems are being wired into ordinary infrastructure. It’s not just online narratives and poisoned information environments anymore; it’s AI in classrooms shaping what kids see and learn in schools, software that “summarizes” body cam footage and can tilt the record, models that can be tuned or poisoned to favor certain narratives, and state‑backed efforts to lean in AI answer platforms so they return the “right” reality.