Most public-facing AI that people encounter are aimed at increasing sales or profitability - steering people toward purchases, facilitating transactions, or automating processes once performed by other humans.

Technology can be a wonderful tool for empowerment, helping all of us to better realize our dreams. More commonly though, it is used to sap our attention and hold our focus hostage as our mindspace is sold to advertisers. The line between ourselves and our technology is constantly being renegotiated. I sometimes fear that in exchange for the convenience and entertainment, we suffer a heavy toll in terms of our shared human experience.