Economist: engagement metrics don't equal social benefit when AI video keeps everyone scrolling
paulnovosad · x · 2026-10-02
Economist Paul Novosad pushes back on framing engagement as a proxy for social benefit: AI-generated instant videos could keep everyone glued to Instagram all day, even if those users would prefer—and even pay for—an equilibrium where most content is human-made. It's a collective-action problem: individual behavior diverges from individual preferences.
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