December 31, 2012 - Researchers at the University of Cambridge have noted thatAI(AI) tools may be used to manipulate the decisions of online users, with influences ranging from shopping choices to who to vote for, among many others.
This manipulation is based on the emerging“Economy of Intention"Intention economyAI assistants, in which they understand, predict, and even manipulate human intentions, and sell this information to related businesses for profit.
Researchers at the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) in Cambridge believe that the "intent economy" will replace the "attention economy" and that personal motivation will become the new currency of exchange.
Note: Attention economy refers to an economic model spawned by the fact that human attention has become a scarce resource in the era of information explosion. Enterprises and platforms compete for users' attention in various ways and turn it into commercial benefits.
For example, social media platforms, short-form video apps, etc., attract users to spend more time on their platforms by providing engaging content and personalized recommendations and profit from advertising, e-commerce, and other means.
And researchers believe the "intent economy" goes even further.Tech companies sell information about user motivations, such as hotel booking plans and political candidate views, to the highest bidder.
Behind the AI chatbots represented by ChatGPT is the rapidly evolving Large Language Model (LLM), which will be used to "predict and guide" users based on "intent, behavior, and psychographic data".
LLM can capture user attention in real time, for example, by asking a user if he or she wants to watch a particular movie.It also dynamically generates suggestions based on the user's "personal behavioral traces" and "psychological profile".
Advertisers can use generative AI tools to create customized online ads and even infer and predict user intent, just like Cicero, an AI model developed by Meta.
Even more worrying is the fact that AI models can infer personal information from everyday interactions.Even "leading" conversations to obtain more personal information.In the future, public companies like MetaThe Division may auction off a user's intent to book a restaurant, flight, or hotel to advertisers.
Researchers warn that, if left unregulated, the "intent economy" will use users' motivations as the new currency of exchange, creating a "gold rush" for those who target, channel and sell human intent. This trend could have a significant impact on human aspirations, including free and fair elections, freedom of the press and fair competition in the marketplace.