Outrage for groups, adoration for individuals

TL;DR The attention economy dynamics for AI chatbots and agents are very different from social media, and so we’re seeing a whole new approach to capturing (and keeping) our attention. This comes down to fundamental human nature – the strongest fuel for groups is outrage; and whilst it might burn dirty and contaminate everything around it, it burns hot, and that keeps the money wheels turning. But as individuals, in what we perceive as one-to-one conversations, we prefer adoration; and that’s why AIs are sycophantic. Outrage factories and their pollution Social media platforms are outrage factories. They’re fuelled by outrage because (in social groups) outrage drives engagement, and engagement drives ad views, and ad views drive profit. It’s really that simple. We could have social networks where we share pet pictures and nice stuff[1]; but they’d be a bit less profitable (even if the people using them would be a bit more happy). I wrote Filter Failure at the Outrage Factory 7.5y ago,…