The More We Sink Into AI Reality, More AI Becomes Us

The smartphone was once a humble device, a simple tool for making calls, sending messages, and, if you were feeling adventurous, playing Snake. Today, it is nothing short of an overlord, a cunningly designed, AI-powered dictator that knows more about us than we know about ourselves. And the worst part? We willingly serve it, like underpaid interns in a corporate empire where the CEO is a pocket-sized rectangle with an unlimited data plan.

It wasn’t always like this. There was a time when we, humans, held the power. We decided what to read, what to watch, and when to sleep. But then, somewhere between the invention of predictive text and the rise of Instagram reels, the roles reversed. Our phones started making those decisions for us, and we, like obedient disciples, accepted our fate. Now, we don’t just use our phones; we exist through them.

Attention Spans Are Dying. AI is Thriving: Take a moment to consider the state of modern communication. Once upon a time, conversations required effort, words were carefully chosen, pauses were meaningful, and emotions were conveyed through expressions rather than emojis. Now, your phone suggests replies before you even have a chance to think. If someone texts “Happy birthday,” your device offers three automated responses: “Thank you!”, “Thanks a lot!”, and the ever-enthusiastic “Thanks!!!” You, the owner of a fully functional brain, simply have to tap. And that’s if you even bother responding; AI is already working on systems that can carry out entire conversations on your behalf, so you might soon outsource your friendships entirely.

We like to believe that we are intelligent, that we are the masters of our technology. But let’s not fool ourselves. If your phone buzzes right now, will you ignore it? Of course not. It could be a message, a notification, a breaking news alert, or an important update about a celebrity’s dog. Whatever it is, it demands attention. The phone is not just a device; it is a tiny, beeping dictator, issuing orders that we obey without question. Even the most disciplined among us, the ones who say things like “I’m taking a digital detox” or “I don’t check my phone after 10 PM,” are liars. They are one phantom vibration away from checking their screen.

And the numbers prove it. Indians now spend an average of 4.5 hours per day on their phones. That’s 68 days a year scrolling through memes, misinformation, and meaningless outrage. Meanwhile, book sales in India have declined sharply — why read a 300-page novel when AI can summarise it in 10 seconds?

The Great Indian WhatsApp Circus: Nowhere is this dependence more visible than in the Great Indian WhatsApp Circus. Family groups, once a means of staying connected, have evolved into 24/7 news channels run by self-certified experts. One forwarded message can convince your mother that lemon water cures cancer, your uncle that the stock market is crashing, and your neighbour that aliens have been spotted in Punjab. AI-driven algorithms ensure that if you engage with one piece of misinformation, your entire digital universe will now revolve around it. Congratulations! Your reality is now a personalised fiction, curated just for you.

The consequences aren’t just theoretical. WhatsApp forwards in India have led to riots, lynchings, and election disinformation on an unprecedented scale. AI doesn’t care what’s true; it only cares about engagement. And humans, it turns out, engage far more with fear, anger, and gossip than they do with facts.

We’re Becoming AI. AI is Becoming Us: Here’s where it gets even more ridiculous. Humans, the so-called superior species, are now trying to behave like AI, while AI is learning to behave more like humans.

Look around. People are obsessed with becoming more “efficient,” more “optimised,” more “productive.” Every second person on LinkedIn is proudly declaring that they wake up at 4 AM, read five books before breakfast, and have a “zero inbox” policy. Meanwhile, AI is being trained to be more empathetic, emotional, and human. It writes poetry, composes music, and even gives relationship advice. In the not-so-distant future, your AI assistant might comfort you after a bad day, while you, the actual human, robotically reply to emails at record speed.

And let’s not forget the growing absurdity of our relationship with AI-driven content. People are now having arguments with ChatGPT, trying to prove they are smarter than a machine. Others are forming emotional bonds with AI chatbots, discussing their dreams, fears, and, in some cases, even proposing marriage. It’s only a matter of time before someone tries to elope with Siri.

The Business of Attention Theft: If AI is getting smarter and we are getting dumber, who benefits? Tech companies, of course. The digital economy thrives on hijacking human attention and repackaging it for advertisers. Your phone knows when you are sad, when you are bored, and when you are in the mood to buy something you don’t need. Spend five minutes looking at a fitness video, and suddenly every ad on your feed is about protein powders, gym memberships, and running shoes. Express mild interest in a travel vlog, and before you know it, your phone is bombarding you with cheap flight tickets and solo travel inspiration, convincing you that your life is incomplete until you take a backpacking trip to Bhutan.

It’s no longer about what we want; it’s about what the algorithm decides we should want. Free will? That died the moment autoplay was invented.

The Death of Real Life: And then, of course, there is the national obsession with capturing every waking moment on camera. People no longer experience life; they document it. Weddings, concerts, even funerals — every event is now an opportunity for content creation. Food is not eaten unless it is photographed from three angles. Sunsets are not enjoyed unless they are live-streamed. Children’s birthdays are celebrated with the kind of cinematic grandeur that once required an entire film crew. We no longer care about living in the moment; we only care about how good the moment looks on our screens.

The irony? AI-generated content is about to make even this obsolete. With tools like OpenAI’s Sora, soon we won’t need to film anything at all; just type a prompt, and AI will create a fake video of your life’s most important moments. Why attend a wedding when AI can generate a better version of it? Why take real vacation photos when AI can make your life look more glamorous than reality ever could?

What Happens Next?: Let’s fast-forward a few years. Imagine waking up one morning to find your AI assistant has planned your entire day from breakfast to political opinions to who you should date. Every decision, every thought, every conversation pre-approved by an algorithm optimised for engagement. The smartphone will no longer just be a device. It will be your boss, your therapist, your news anchor, your best friend, and your life coach, all rolled into one.

And the ultimate punchline? AI might, one day, write think pieces like this one, pointing out how humans failed to resist the very trap they designed.

So here we are, a society of thumb-scrolling, notification-chasing, algorithm-worshipping creatures, while our phones grow more intelligent, more intuitive, more alive. If there was ever a time to reclaim our minds, to step away from this hypnotic digital vortex, it is now.

But let’s be real — before we even consider doing that, we’ll just check our phones one last time. Just in case.

Dr Srinath Sridharan is a policy researcher and corporate adviser. X: @ssmumbai