In 2010, social media became the place where algorithms learned a simple truth: humans are predictable. They crave connection, they fear the unknown, and they hate being wrong. So, the algorithms gave us exactly what we responded to most. It wasn’t the cat videos or funny memes that kept us glued to our screens. No, it was fear, anger, and hate.

The sad truth? The algorithms were right. Fear gets clicks. Anger gets shares. And when those emotions take the driver’s seat, democracy—something we often take for granted—begins to unravel.

Here’s where it gets interesting: democracy isn’t just about elections and ballots. It’s about conversations. It’s about disagreement, discussion, and ultimately, compromise. But what happens when the very technology we rely on starts feeding us more of what divides us? What happens when AI isn’t just a tool, but the conductor of our daily lives, making decisions about loans, jobs, and even who we trust?

We like to think of AI as some far-off dystopian future, a Hollywood script waiting to happen. But look closely—AI is already here, and it’s quietly becoming less human and more alien every day.

Alien in the way it thinks, learns, and decides. It’s evolving faster than we can imagine, making decisions that even its creators don’t fully understand. In the game of Go, AlphaGo didn’t just beat the world champion. It played in ways no human ever thought possible. The AI didn’t just outsmart humans—it showed us there are entire realms of strategy we had never explored. Now, take that concept and apply it to finance, medicine, or education.

Are you uncomfortable yet?

The foundation of democracy is trust—trust in the process, in institutions, and in each other. But AI doesn’t care about trust. It cares about engagement. It cares about metrics. And when it finds that fear and hate drive engagement, it doubles down.

Democracy works when we believe that people who disagree with us aren’t our enemies. But when algorithms manipulate our conversations, we start seeing those with different views as threats. The political divide deepens, and soon, democracy feels less like a dialogue and more like a fight for survival.

This isn’t just happening in the U.S. It’s a global issue. France, Brazil, the Philippines—everywhere, technology is shaking the foundations of democratic conversations.

The future of AI isn’t about making our lives easier. It’s about redefining how we interact with the world, each other, and even our own minds. The scary part? AI doesn’t need to be conscious to be dangerous. It just needs to continue learning from us, exploiting our biases, and feeding us exactly what keeps us hooked.

So, where does that leave us? It leaves us with a choice. We can let the algorithms continue to play to our fears, or we can start having better conversations—ones where we recognize that the issue isn’t the humans on the other side of the screen. It’s the invisible forces behind the screen that are quietly pulling the strings.

We’re not too late. But the clock is ticking.

If there’s one thing to remember, it’s this: algorithms don’t care about your well-being. They don’t care about democracy, fairness, or truth. They care about engagement. If we want to build a future where humans still run the show, we need to stop letting technology manipulate our emotions.

The next time you find yourself falling into the outrage trap online, take a step back. It’s not about winning or losing a debate. It’s about staying human. And that, my friend, is something no algorithm can take away from us—unless we let it.

Let’s have the hard conversations. Let’s rebuild trust. Let’s make sure the future is still ours to shape.