There is something fundamentally undemocratic about the constant stream of new AI releases as the industry scrambles to prove its value in the face of a rapidly inflating market bubble.

Each shiny new toy emerges from the hype machine that casts progress as inevitable and resistance as futile as the industry builds moats around their advantage at the expense of everyday people.

In the past few weeks three new applications of AI have landed that could each have a profound impact on our shared reality: OpenAI’s new video platform, Sora; the scaling of a virtual companion called “Friend” and Meta’s push to import its advertising model into chatbots.

The launch of Sora to a select group of users was juiced by a deepfake of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shoplifting, which is totally on brand given how he has trained his model on the stolen property of creators. From porn to politics to performers’ IP, Sora comes with no discernible positive use case. It will simply flood the public square with slop, undermining any pretence of shared reality in pursuit of dopamine-charged clicks.

“Friend” is a wearable pendant that collects a user’s conversations and spatial movements to inform a sycophantic buddy whose job is to send supportive text messages. Another companion startup, “Replika”, embeds this connection with voice and a happy ending. What these tools will do to human connection, especially among young people navigating intimate personal........

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