Economics

John Maynard Keynes coined the term “animal spirits” to describe the human emotions that drive consumer confidence. In the age of AI hype, we see new animal spirits emerge as we lose connection with reality and all cheer for a new algorithmically driven future of generated clickbait, crappy art, incorrect “facts”, and a flood of low-quality content.

When it comes to humans, you can usually answer the “why?” question about behavioural observations by examining the incentives. This is especially true in economics, but also true of nearly everything in life, such as why politicians ignore their constituents or adopt unpopular policies. There’s a popular catchphrase to describe this kind of analysis: “follow the money”.