Future Grandmasters of The Attention Game

The essay argues that AI-generated content threatens platforms that publish user-submitted content and profit from attention, not the wider internet, and that these platforms may be exposed as addictive products. It contends that social media virality is produced by engineered algorithmic rules rather than randomness, citing researchers at the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, who found little correlation between YouTube subscribers and views. Rebecca Jennings, writing for Vox, is quoted saying that creators now spend much of their time on marketing rather than art. The author uses MrBeast as an example of a top performer in this "Algorithm Game" who could be vulnerable as generative AI improves.