AI Isn't Just About Intelligence—It's Entertainment

We talk about AI as a productivity tool. But a new paper argues its biggest near-term impact may be entertainment—memes, music, companions, and endless remixing—already popular with young people and a massive potential revenue stream.

As companies seek returns on huge infrastructure bets, “AI for fun” will shape what they build. Yet today’s evaluations obsess over intelligence and police only cultural harms. The authors propose “thick entertainment”: a way to judge AI-made culture not just by what it avoids, but by how it helps people make meaning, explore identity, and connect with others.

If AI becomes to “intelligence” what social media became to “social,” we need better yardsticks now. Read the paper by Cody Kommers and Ari Holtzman: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08768

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08768v1

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