Advertising doesn’t work if people are not to a large extent predictable. In fact, if people aren’t largely predictable, then society pretty much breaks down. The insurance industry is premised on the idea of predictability. The supply chain. Banking and the stock market.

There has been far less discussion about the data behind these models and the way recent advances have changed our relationship to that data, even as they have amplified the impact of AI-driven content on our world.