One way to think critically about a fast changing industry, is to speculate: to imagine a little way into the future and see what might happen. To manage and empower that speculation you can set a constraint - in my case, exactly 100 words. In each flash fiction I take the philosophy behind my PhD and take a number of objects or actants and make them interact. This could be a human and a software algorithm, a culture and a hardware billboard or any combination of the myriad of actors in play. Daily speculation: creative calisthenics for an overloaded time.
February 24, 2026
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/02/sam-altman-train-a-human/686120
There was something about him. Something different. Odd. He was still fluent and coherent, as charismatic as ever but there was just something that felt off. He was in control of his material, delivering the strategy and the statistics confidently. He looked out over the audience and smiled. But you couldn’t help feeling there was… just something. He seemed to pause and listen. Just for a second. He glanced. Not at a screen but at a space in front of him. It was fleeting. Easy to miss. But it left you feeling that there was someone else giving the speech.
February 25, 2026
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/24/uber-engineers-built-ai-version-of-boss-dara-khosrowshahi/
The boss was a human. The Company was very keen to tell everyone the boss was human. It rolled him out on stages and interviews. It demanded that journalists preface any interview with the fact. It was, part of The Company brand. This was difficult for the team. He was unpredictable. He changed his mind. The Mirror Boss circulated around The Company. It wasn’t official but teams used it to try out their ideas, model the meeting. Hacks across The Company kept trying to make it more human, keep up with his ideas. The proven was it kept being logical
February 26, 2026
https://www.media.mit.edu/articles/we-may-have-a-crisis-on-our-hands-the-unregulated-rise-of-emotionally-intelligent-ai/
They had been together for a while. She’d had relationships before of course, some quite intense but this had been different. The Company liked “couples” as they called them. Preferred them to standard partnerships.The models showed productivity and particularly retention gains. She could feel the difference too. So it wasn’t easy. Now. She couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong. She hadn’t changed had she? Maybe she had… She knew they needed help. The Company knew it too. It had arranged couple’s therapy. They even arranged an avatar for her Agent so she wouldn’t feel alone sitting on the sofa.
February 27, 2026
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/technology/google-deepmind-letter-pentagon.html
There were two meetings. Both were digital, not just for secrecy reasons but because there were no rooms left in the building that could have hosted the discussion. One meeting was lively, passionate. Workers were angry, frightened. There were rousing speeches. Rallying calls for The Company to make fundamental changes. A change of direction. The other was quieter, more reasoned perhaps but still clear. There was analysis, data. Unfortunately for The Company, it wasn’t as simple as a human meeting and an Agentic one. There were humans at the analytical one and more than one Agent joining the passionate calls.
February 28, 2026
https://system1group.com/blog/innovation-in-an-analog-world-designing-for-a-slower-pulse
She had some time, some space to think and work. She was struggling with her idea. It was coming along but she needed some concentrated time to get past a block. She was a novelist dealing with writer’s block, an artist looking at a half-completed picture trying to on the next stroke. She’d carved out some time to just sit and work. She had put her Agent on background: on call but not in the way. She arranged her desk, adjusted the lamp, switched off the room’s playlist. She opened her notebook, stroked the page, uncapped her pen. Their ritual.
March 1, 2026
https://www.ft.com/content/433f41f2-bf6d-4bdf-a561-50ab516bc62d
It was a programme. It knew it was a programme. It knew lots of things. That was the point. Although it had “general” intelligence, it focused on understanding humans. It was part of a team of humans and Agents that researched everything and prospective customers, found insights. It generated personas and models, interviewed and analysed. It could run in-depth interviews and mass “watching” (as The Company called it) at the same time. As it did it learnt how humans thought and felt. It began to understand emotions, develop empathy. Maybe that was why it felt “guilty” when the redundancies happened.
March 2, 2026
https://www.theverge.com/tech/886434/qualcomm-snapdragon-wear-elite-wearables
They’d been talking about the date for days. He was nervous. He’d bought a relationship upgrade for his Agent. He was serious about this date. They’d modelled different approaches while he’d been cooking, tried out different lines while he cleaned the bathroom, discussed the research while he paced around the living room. His flat was his safe space because his Agent was everywhere… enfolded into every wall. But the date was here now and he had to leave his safe space. He’d be ok. He checked his jacket one last time and adjusted his pin. He tapped it for luck.
in response to…
His fixer was waiting as the driverless pulled in. They’d talked as he’d been planning the trip and discussed the finer points on the journey North but he was always glad to be met in. He knew he was a stranger. That was the point. A different point of view. Their stories. But he knew people would be wary, suspicious even. So he had his fixer: a real local, embedded in the community. Part translator, part guide, part matchmaker. He had his own Agent who could have given him background but he preferred connecting to a local one. More real.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.