Suddenly we are buying things we didn’t know we wanted, or castigating our enemies on Twitter because it will garner the attention that the platform trades in. Through this dynamic, we are encouraged to think of our preferences, thoughts, and behaviors as products of these algorithms. Smith, however, reminds us that our confusion goes both ways, such that we often lend subjectivity, volition, and thought to programs and algorithms. As we have discovered (or imagined) robotic qualities in ourselves, artificial intelligences appear increasingly human.

I wrote about Justin Smith’s vision of the internet for Bookforum. (2022)