Parsing Signal & Noise in the Medium's Message - AI, McLuhan & Media pt.8

🔍 Everyone's Asking the Wrong Question About AI

Most conversations about AI focus on who is using it and what they’re making. Since The Algorithm craves engagement, the conversation usually comes with an unhealthy dose of outrage. It's noise, just noise! There are debates worth having when it comes to AI, but these ain't they. 

➡️ The more important question isn’t about content—it’s about how AI, as a medium, is shaping society itself. Marshall McLuhan’s famous idea, “The medium is the message,” teaches us that new technologies don’t just deliver content; they reshape human behavior, industries, and culture in ways we often don’t see at first.

📺 Television didn’t just give us new shows; it redefined how we absorbed information and how politicians campaigned.

 🌐 The internet didn’t just provide access to knowledge; it rewired how we think, socialize, and define truth.

When we start thinking of AI as a medium, and not just as a tool, we can start to parse signal from noise.

🤖 AI as a Medium, and its Message

So what is "the message" of the AI medium? In my previous posts about AI & McLuhan, I went in depth on some of these ideas, but here's my best guesses as to how AI is reshaping culture:

Automation of Thought & Creativity – AI extends human cognition by automating processes we once considered uniquely human: writing, art, decision-making. It raises questions about authorship and originality.

Pattern Recognition & Predictive Mediation – AI systems function by identifying and replicating patterns, making their core “message” about prediction, optimization, and probabilistic reasoning.

Human-Machine Hybrid Thinking – Just as print reshaped linear thought, AI fosters a form of cognitive outsourcing where human creativity increasingly coexists with machine-generated insights.

Blurring of Reality & Simulation – AI-generated content challenges our perception of truth, pushing us into a world where distinguishing between human and machine-made ideas is increasingly difficult.

Personalized & Algorithmic Reality – AI reconfigures our social reality by mediating information through recommendation systems, shaping personal worldviews through curated experiences. Once we see a fully personalized storytelling platform emerge, we'll witness the birth of "The Idioverse" which will have its own problems, including the collapse of fandoms via hyperfragmentation.

In the context of storytelling, AI is changing the process of creation, the relationship between creator and audience, and the nature of storytelling itself.

If we apply McLuhan’s lens, the real impact of AI in the context of creative production isn’t just about what it produces, it’s about how it’s restructuring creativity, identity, and media ecosystems in ways we’re only beginning to understand.