AI watches us, learns from us, suggests—and we follow.
So… are we still the authors of our own digital behavior?
The Invisible Feedback Loop
Here’s how it works:
- You use AI.
- It learns your habits and data.
- It starts predicting what you’ll do next.
- You follow its suggestions because they’re “smart”.
- You repeat the pattern.
- It learns again—and tightens the loop.
And just like that, your behavior becomes training data for your own automation.
When the Tool Becomes the Master
Let’s get practical:
- Spotify recommends more of what you already liked. You stop exploring.
- TikTok optimizes your feed so well, it rewires your attention span.
- Copilot/ChatGPT complete your code or thoughts—faster, but maybe not you.
At some point, you're not just using tools.
You're adopting the mindset they were trained to reinforce.
The Illusion of Choice
When everything is optimized, is your decision still yours?
AI is great at pattern recognition. But it’s also great at making you predictable.
When suggestions become default, how much space is left for friction? Or randomness? Or you?
Predictability Becomes the Default
AI doesn't like ambiguity.
It works with patterns, stats, probabilities.
So the more predictable you are,
The easier it is to model you.
That’s why—consciously or not—
We start behaving how AI expects us to:
- We write like a prompt.
- We reply like we’re being graded by an algorithm.
- We create content chasing reach, not truth.
We’re programming ourselves to be machine-readable.
So... Who’s Training Who?
AI is supposed to learn from us.
But now we’re adjusting ourselves to work better with AI.
It’s not just about ethics, privacy, or job disruption.
It’s about creative agency.
Are we still creators?
Or just high-functioning prompters?
So... Now What?
No, I’m not saying stop using AI.
(Heck, this very article had its grammar and typos cleaned up by one.)
The idea is: don’t let it think for you.
Let’s reflect:
- How many of your decisions are actually yours?
- How much of your thinking has been quietly automated?
- And what if we’re becoming too legible—too optimized—for our own good?
A Final Thought
We worry about AI taking control.
But what if we’re just giving it away?
Maybe AI won’t need to dominate us.
Maybe we’ll just reshape ourselves so much that we become the algorithm.
What do you think?
Have you ever caught yourself thinking, writing or coding in a way just to “please the machine”?
Drop your thoughts below 👇
Let's talk about it like humans.
Top comments (2)
I recall a similar discussion about algorithms vs. serendipity, and that's exactly the case of Spotify's recommendations and most current social media. AI, on the other hands, keeps suggesting to write words and code that I wouldn't normally use, and that feels like the opposite of a reinforcement loop, but a nudge to become more mainstream and do what many other people have done before.
Maybe a bit off-topic, but there are studies showing that people who wrote essays with the help of AI couldn’t recall or quote anything from their work after some time — unlike those who wrote the essays themselves. AI definitely affects memory and human behavior. More research is needed! :D