New market — how AI sells our solutions to companies
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In the near future, artificial intelligence will be able not only to predict our decisions but also to influence them at an early stage. Moreover, these predictions will be sold to companies in real time so that they can meet our needs even before we realize our desires.
This is reported by Tech Xplore.
Artificial intelligence ethicists from the University of Cambridge point to the emergence of a new market — the "intention economy". It applies to everything from buying movie tickets to voting in elections.
Artificial intelligence in a new role
Researchers at Cambridge's Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) point out that generative artificial intelligence, along with the proliferation of chatbots, is paving the way for new technologies of influence. Such tools will be able to obtain a huge amount of data through a simple conversation, recognizing our interests, preferences, and intentions.
"Artificial intelligence is able to combine knowledge of our online habits with a deep understanding of psychology to create a level of trust that can be used for social manipulation on an industrial scale," the researchers note.
Dr. Yaqoob Chaudhary, LCFI Visiting Scholar, emphasizes that artificial intelligence is becoming a part of our lives, but it is important to understand whose interests it actually serves.
The "economy of intent" as a new monetization tool
Technology historian Dr. Johnny Penn emphasizes that for decades, the main currency on the Internet has been user attention. However, the new "intention economy" is turning our motives into a commodity.
"This will be a new gold rush for companies that sell human intentions," he said.
In an article for the Harvard Data Science Review, Penn and Chaudhary explain that the intent economy will be based on user profiling and behavioral analysis. For example, thanks to large language models (LLMs), it will be possible to identify preferences, communication style, age, gender, and even a tendency to compliment.
"As a result, companies will be able to predict and influence our decisions, from buying tickets to choosing political preferences," Chaudhary says.
Despite the fact that the intentions economy is still in its infancy, researchers are already noticing the first signs of this phenomenon. For example, in 2023, OpenAI announced the need to collect data that "expresses human intent", and in 2024, Apple introduced a new framework for developers called App Intents, which allows to predict user actions.
In addition, Meta is already using technologies like CICERO that can recognize intentions and use persuasive dialog to achieve its goals.
What are the challenges and dangers?
Researchers warn that the development of the "intentional economy" could affect key aspects of society, including freedom of elections, press independence, and fair competition.
"We need to be prepared for the challenges posed by the new marketplace of intent and regulate it before we face unintended consequences," Penn emphasizes.
He adds that the public should be aware of these trends to avoid negative consequences.
As a reminder, MagicLab, a startup from China, has shown a whole fleet of humanoid robots. They are able to perform various tasks from dancing to material processing, and the most interesting thing is that they can work in a team.
We also wrote that OpenAI has launched its own phone number for ChatGPT. For the time being, you can only communicate with it in the United States or via text messages on WhatsApp.
