The alert is launched by researchers at the University of Cambridge who speak of the emergence of a new form of digital economy. Dr Jonnie Penn, technology historian at the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI), explains: “For decades, attention has been the currency of the internet. Sharing attention on platforms like Facebook and Instagram fueled the online economy. Without regulation, the economy of intent will make your motivations the new currency It will be a gold rush for those who target, direct and sell human intentions.
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L’“economy of intention”the Internet of tomorrow?
According to the study, large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT will be used to “anticipate and guide” Internet users. AIs will tap into intentional, behavioral and psychological data. It will be possible for them to interact in real time, by suggesting, for example: “Have you thought about seeing Spider-Man tonight?”. Or even anticipate future intentions: “You seemed overworked, should I book those movie tickets we talked about?”
Suggestions could be generated dynamically according to several personal factors: behavior, psychological profile, language, age, gender, political opinions. The AI would then use this data to guide conversations or direct to certain advertisers and other third parties.
Meta AI already predicts human intentions
The researchers take the example of Cicero. This AI model created by Meta is able to deduce and predict the intentions of its opponents during games of the game Diplomacy. The study speaks of a future in which Mark Zuckerberg’s company could guess when a user wants to book a restaurant, a flight or a hotel.
So the AI industry is heading in this direction. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, heavily hinted at this in 2024 by explaining that AIs will be able to “understand your intention, your desire, what you are trying to do, based on the context, and present the information to you in the best way possible”.
Researchers therefore warn about the impact of AI on human aspirations, including elections, press freedom and fair competition. The consequences of this technology may be unforeseen.
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