Goodbye, attention economy. Hello, intention economy: the new era of digital hygiene

We've probably all seen the news: OpenAI will show ads to ChatGPT users in the US market. OpenAI needs to somehow generate a return for investors, and for businesses this is a great opportunity to be where their customer is with more precise advertising targeting than ever before.

And as a digital wellbeing evangelist, I'm also curious about how this will change us and society, knowing what consequences the attention economy had (and still has).

Because it seems that there is a difference between the attention economy and the healthy, intention economy.

Let's remember - the attention economy is best described by the saying "if the product is free - you are the product". Social media platforms generate staggering profits from only two sources: advertising and the sale of data (about us). In order to show us more advertising and collect more data about us - one and the main KPI of free platforms is user engagement, measured by time spent on the platforms. To extend that time as much as possible, thousands of the brightest minds in Silicon Valley program algorithms that know us better than we know ourselves. Each of us personally feels the irresistible pull of the attention economy through simple everyday examples: I opened Instagram for a moment and I don’t understand how 30 minutes passed, I can’t read a chapter of a book without getting distracted, and I promised myself I would go to bed on time, but I scrolled until midnight. On a societal scale, researchers have found universal symptoms: fragmented attention, inability to concentrate (when working on screens, we shift our attention every 47 seconds), decreased self-control, increased anxiety, mental health crises, etc. etc.

Ok. So this is what has happened to social media algorithms over the past 10 years, which, compared to current AI capabilities, look like wooden toys in front of a space station.

So what can we expect now? University of Cambridge researchers are talking about another digital shift - the intention economy. In it, AI not only reacts to our actions, but also predicts and forms decisions before we consciously make them.

What could this look like in practice? Since conversations with a chatbot cover all life topics from personal troubles, work difficulties, health, interpersonal relationships, etc., such conversations allow AI to form a very accurate picture of our personality, priorities, values, and intentions, and it never forgets them. For example, if you talked about how to improve sleep quality a month ago, and today you ask how to increase your energy level because you woke up tired, you can definitely get advice to buy a thermostat that would regulate the temperature in your bedroom so that you can sleep better. And I believe that this example of mine is very primitive.

But it is clear that unlike the attention economy, which competed for attention, the intention economy will monetize our emotions (I suspect, especially those related to self-doubt) and silently shape our choices, without our awareness: we will continue to feel free and rational, but we will increasingly make decisions that, at the optimal moment, will seem like our own thoughts. By outsourcing decision-making in this way, we will atrophy critical thinking, freedom of choice and autonomy.

I want to end on some positive thought, but I can’t think of anything else, other than urging education - digital literacy should not only be about training on how to effectively use AI to perform everyday tasks (which is necessary), but also not forgetting to learn digital hygiene, see the bigger picture, and understand the impact of technology on our productivity, well-being and humanity, so that we control technology, and not vice versa.