The Invisible Specter - How Artificial Intelligence Will Come to Direct Our Digital Life
Every online action is influenced. It's not by chance that you see exactly that clip, that product, that comment...etc. Nobody claps their hands, nobody speaks commands out loud. Everything is orchestrated, discreetly, by Artificial Intelligence. You don't see it, you don't feel it directly, but without it, the screens wouldn't know what to show you.
The silence that governs our clicks. Do you choose... or do you just approve?
AI is not something that catches your eye. It doesn't ask you if you're okay, it doesn't give you advice on WhatsApp (although maybe... soon). It's present in applications, on websites, in automatic recommendations that seem "perfect". We don't ask anything explicit from it, but we let it decide much more than we would think.
Tonight's playlist? It was anticipated. The product that appears in your cart? Without looking. The AI just knows — because you let it learn.
It's easy to think that you're making a conscious choice. In reality, the algorithm has decided before you. It's noticed how you look at the screen, how long you linger on an image, what you post and what you ignore. The feed is no longer chronological, but curated based on your emotional profile. Do you feel like it "fits you"? That's because the AI has decided what's worth seeing.
- Shopping platforms adjust prices, predict demand, filter inventory — all automatically.
- Learning sessions adjust without students knowing they're being monitored in the background.
- In hospitals, AI is already part of rapid analysis, initial diagnoses, and clinical predictions.
It all seems natural — but decisions are made silently, without dialogue. It's efficient, but also opaque.
AI doesn't judge — it executes. It has no remorse. And if the algorithm decides that a piece of content is not “appropriate,” who checks its criteria? If a recommendation influences behavior, who is responsible? The ethics of AI remain a challenge: what is moral is not always efficient, and what is efficient is not always transparent.
It is no longer enough to know “how to use apps.” You need to understand how algorithmic thinking works. You are exposed to a personalized digital reality, but you were not asked if you want it.
AI can be useful — but also seductive. It can teach, but it can also limit. It can educate, but it can also isolate.
Artificial Intelligence has no empathy. It does not miss, it does not laugh at bad jokes, it does not get angry when it receives detergent ads. But precisely because of its lack of emotion, it becomes efficient... and dangerous, if left unattended.
We have become an audience in a digital theater run by AI. The real question is: do we still have tickets to the director’s show? Or were we content with a second-row seat?