Blood in the Machine: “I do not think it will shock anyone to learn that big tech is aggressively pushing AI products. But the extent to which they have done so might. The sheer ubiquity of AI means that we take for ground the countless ways, many invisible, that these products and features are foisted on us—and how Silicon Valley companies have systematically designed and deployed AI products onto their existing platforms in an effort to accelerate adoption. It also happens to be the subject of a new study by design scholars Nolwenn Maudet, Anaëlle Beignon, and Thomas Thibault, who looked at hundreds of instances of how AI has been deployed, highlighted, and advertised by Google, Meta, Adobe, SnapChat, and others, and analyzed them for a study called “Imposing AI: Deceptive design patterns against sustainability.” They also present the results in a handy guide, with illustrated examples called, aptly: “How tech companies are pushing us to use AI.” (It’s translated from the French, hence the sometimes awkward phrasings.) The study is a stark reminder that AI has reached ubiquity not necessarily because users around the globe are demanding AI products, but for reasons often closer to the opposite.

Big tech’s deployment of AI has been both relentless and methodical, the study finds. By inserting AI features onto the top of messaging apps and social media, where it’s all but unignorable, by deploying pop-ups and unsubtle design tricks to direct users to AI on the interface, or by pushing prompts to use AI outright, AI is being imposed on billions of users, rather than eagerly adopted.

See also The Substack AI Report – We asked 2,000 Substack publishers how they’re using and thinking about AI. Here’s what we found.