From Curation to Creation:

Over the last decade and a half, algorithms curating our content have evolved so dramatically that their potency is nothing short of breathtaking.

When facebook was in its early days we were in phase I:

conscious curation. One would share intriguing content on Facebook or retweet it on Twitter, facilitating exposure to a broader audience. I was in late middle school when we we’re in this phase. It felt more organic, and there was a connection to the real world. My friends in real life were my friends on the platforms, and we saw things that our friends list wanted us to see. A much simpler time.

Then, a subtle yet powerful shift occurred, leading us to the era of unconscious curation. Content surfaced not necessarily based on active or “conscious” sharing, but passive interaction. For instance, even if you didn't share a video, the mere fact that you watched it for 9 minutes and 27 seconds meant it had potential to be showcased to thousands more.

Platforms like TikTok have revolutionized this space. Anyone familiar with TikTok can vouch for its “magnetic” pull, where some will literally skip meals to scroll for a little longer. And the extra scroll time is cutting into the profits of the other social media platforms, so they are actively copying TikTok, and all curation algorithms are becoming the central force to all popular culture across social, political, and even economical landscapes when looking at LinkedIN.

Metrics like retention, comments, likes, viral hooks, universal themes are no longer mere statistics. They form the foundational knowledge for a new generation of content creators. 16 year old kids are being taught to create content that use these strategies to satisfy the curation gods.

And while TikTok didn't employ trainers or release guidebooks for people to learn these algorithms, it introduced us to the omnipotent "Curation God". This algorithm serves as the mentor, the fame-maker, the revenue distributor, and often, the pivotal key to a thriving business. If you make a video and the algorithm is happy, you get a thumbs up or views on the video - you feel famous. If you don’t get views, you get a thumbs down, and you feel invisible.

This is nearly identical to how ChatGPT was trained with Reinforcement Learning, but this is a concept for another date.

Anyway, as dominant as the Curation God has been, it's poised for a transition. While it will persist, it is set to be overshadowed by the next giant in the realm: The Creation God, or the Creation Algorithm.

We are on the cusp of the conscious creation era. This implies a symbiotic relationship between AI and humans in the content creation process. Although the Curation God will still play a role in distribution, the content will predominantly be born out of collaboration between humans and AI tools. This phase will usher in a wave of innovation, with fresh tools allowing us to witness the diverse applications of AI in content creation.

Yet, with every technological leap, there's a catch. The adeptness of a few in harnessing AI will lead to automation in the creation process. By analyzing social trends, understanding user behaviors from platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube, they'll pinpoint virality niches. They will train AI models on relevant culture. Then, with surgical precision, AI tools will craft content for those niches.

This will flood the content landscape to the degree of unusability.

This will then lead to the unconscious creation phase. This phase may very well signal the sunset for the Curation God, with AI autonomously generating the content tailored to our own desires on command.

This could be in many different forms.

We are heading in this direction, with Meta integrating interactive characters across their platforms and both Meta and Apple intensifying their forays into the VR and AR realms.