Credit: Iyad Rahwan. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source: https://www.mit.edu/~irahwan/cartoons.html
This article is part of the weekly newsletter No 30 published on The Climate Historian
AI Apps Compete for Your Attention
Meet the tech oligarchs - the digital deities, who shape what you see, hear, and even think. Their apps don’t just serve you—they study you, learn you, and, if you’re not careful, own you.
It begins the moment we wake up. Our phone screens come to life, offering us a personalised news digest, courtesy of an AI-driven app. As we sip our morning coffee, another algorithm suggests music, podcasts, and meditation apps remind us that inner peace is just a few clicks away. Welcome to the attention economy, where AI doesn’t just assist us but actively fights for dominance.
Once upon a time, the competition for our attention was limited to books, newspapers, radio, and TV. But in today's hyper-connected world, AI systems battle for our time across multiple fronts. Social media algorithms fight to keep us scrolling, Netflix recommendations urge us to watch one more episode or another binge-worthy series, and Spotify knows what music we want before we do.
Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri compete to be the digital butlers of our lives. I wonder - how did we ever manage without them? From playing our favourite songs, and finding the perfect lasagna recipe or setting reminders all on our own. But even with all their intelligence, they don’t always agree. Ask the same question to three AI assistants, and you might get three slightly different answers. Which one do we trust?
Ironically, even productivity apps—designed to help us focus—have become distractions themselves. There are so many now that I’ve lost count, each one competing for our attention just like the platforms they claim to protect us from.
The Psychology of the Attention Economy
This isn’t just a technological war—it’s a psychological one. AI apps aren’t just designed to be helpful; they’re engineered to be addictive. Attention is profit. The more time we spend with an app, the more valuable we become to it. This is the attention economy in action.
In The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff argues that AI-driven platforms do not just predict behaviour, they shape it. Recommendation engines don’t just suggest - they influence what we actually do. Shoshana Zuboff calls this “instrumentation and instrumentalization of behavior for the purposes of modification, prediction, monetization, and control.”
And when AI systems compete for our attention, they don’t fight fairly. They exploit cognitive biases, trigger dopamine-fuelled habits, and take advantage of our limited willpower. The longer we stay hooked, the more valuable we become.
The Problem? These Deities Answer to No One
With great power comes… well, very little accountability. These deities dictate what news goes viral, whose voices are amplified, and, in some cases, who wins elections. Musk buys Twitter, and suddenly the world’s digital town square has a new mayor.
Governments try to regulate them, but how do you regulate a deity? Politicians need their platforms to reach voters. The media relies on them for distribution. Even critics of Big Tech… complain about Big Tech on Big Tech platforms (oh, the irony).
How to Break Free (Without Going Off-Grid)
AI may be intelligent, but it doesn’t have our best interests at heart. It prioritises engagement and attention—not balance, mindfulness, or well-being. That responsibility falls on us.
We might not be able to overthrow the tech deities, but at least refuse to be their obedient followers.
Question the Feed – Every post, every suggestion, every ad—ask yourself, Why am I seeing this?
Curate, Don’t Consume – Follow who you want, not who the algorithm thinks you should.
Control the Dopamine Hits – Turn off autoplay, infinite scroll, and notifications. Take back your time.
Diversify Your Information Diet – One platform should never dictate your worldview. Read beyond the algorithm.
Use Tech Without Letting It Use You – AI should serve you, not enslave you.
The Future: Will the Deities of Tech Relinquish Power?
Unlikely. Power doesn’t fade—it evolves.
The next generation of AI, the metaverse, brain-computer interfaces—these oligarchs aren’t just controlling today’s internet, they’re building the next one. And if history teaches us anything, they won’t stop until they own not just what we consume, but how we think.
The battle has just begun. But remember in the AI Hunger Games, the best way to win is to show them that they don’t own you. That you’re more than just a pawn in their games.