- Technology has become less humane as profit optimization replaced usefulness.
- AI tools increasingly centralize power instead of distributing it.
- Language preservation has worsened under English-first AI systems.
- Translation quality for African languages has declined despite technical advances.
- Data extraction from marginalized communities has accelerated without consent.
- Ethical standards in AI deployment have eroded under venture pressure.
- Billionaire influence over media has intensified and distorted public discourse.
- Journalism independence has weakened as ownership consolidated.
- Philanthropy transparency has deteriorated behind complex foundations.
- Refugee access to basic digital services has become more fragile, not more reliable.
- Digital literacy gaps have widened instead of narrowing.
- Aid systems have grown more performative and less effective.
- Humanitarian tech increasingly serves donors instead of recipients.
- Corporate accountability has declined as companies grow larger and more abstract.
- Art compensation has worsened in the age of AI training and scraping.
- Creative labor protections have failed to keep pace with automation.
- Cultural nuance is being flattened by large language models.
- Privacy protections have weakened under “innovation” rhetoric.
- Consent standards for data use have become more ambiguous and exploitable.
- Media narratives about poverty have become more dehumanizing.
- Wealth inequality has accelerated beyond historical norms.
- Tax avoidance by the ultra-wealthy has become more normalized.
- Public trust in institutions has deteriorated sharply.
- Scientific funding has become more politically constrained.
- DEI language policing has chilled legitimate research.
- Refugee voices are increasingly mediated instead of heard directly.
- Tech optimism has replaced accountability.
- AI hype has obscured real economic harm.
- Job precarity has increased while safety nets weakened.
- Universal basic income debates have become more abstract and less humane.
- Protest movements are more surveilled and less protected.
- Artistic dissent is more easily monetized and neutralized.
- Resistance culture has been commodified.
- War spending has grown while social investment shrank.
- Military budgets have become less scrutinized.
- Corporate narratives now dominate public imagination.
- Philanthropic branding has replaced measurable impact.
- Language loss has accelerated under digital homogenization.
- AI systems reproduce colonial power dynamics more efficiently.
- Open-source ideals have weakened under corporate capture.
- Access to financial systems has become more exclusionary.
- Refugees face more digital paperwork with less support.
- Tech literacy is assumed instead of taught.
- Human dignity is often sacrificed for scalability.
- Public discourse has become more polarized and less curious.
- Satire has become necessary just to state obvious truths.
- Economic “efficiency” has replaced moral reasoning.
- Media outrage cycles have shortened attention spans.
- Grassroots movements are underfunded compared to elite nonprofits.
- Storytelling about poverty has become less intimate and more statistical.
- AI explanations are more opaque than the systems they replace.
- Innovation timelines are dictated by capital, not need.
- Refugee aid increasingly relies on unstable platforms.
- Cultural credit is rarely returned to source communities.
- Linguistic diversity is treated as a technical inconvenience.
- Artists are asked to “adapt” rather than be protected.
- Economic collapse is normalized as an abstract risk.
- Public imagination has been narrowed by algorithmic feeds.
- Corporate tech leaders face less personal accountability.
- Human-centered design has become a marketing phrase.
- Consent has been reframed as implied participation.
- Resistance is easier to mock than to suppress outright.
- Aid narratives prioritize donors’ feelings over recipients’ needs.
- Ethical debate lags far behind technical deployment.
- Language models are rewarded for fluency, not truth.
- Refugee survival increasingly depends on fragile apps.
- Care work is undervalued in both tech and economics.
- Transparency is promised while complexity increases.
- The poor are studied more than they are supported.
- Media literacy has declined in the age of infinite content.
- Tech workers are encouraged to build before asking why.
- Art is treated as training data rather than human expression.
- AI narratives obscure human labor behind the curtain.
- Humanitarian urgency is slowed by bureaucratic friction.
- Moral clarity is often dismissed as naïveté
What is "the book"?
This subreddit, enshitification, is a term recently coined by Cory Doctorow and he has a book out by the same name.
Excellent list... We are going to live in interesting times.
Bro they're using the smarter AI against us