> And it also sounds like the opening chapter of a story about what happens when an AI finds a nice little unpatched exploit in human cognition and uses that to its advantage.
I vaguely remember an article arguing that companies are basically a form of AI, because in a way, there are processes and systems and the whole thing is more than the sum of the humans working in it or something.
Now replace "AI" with "company" in this sentence of yours and we are already there. The exploits being the gigantic slot machine of social media, notifications, short-form content and endless scrolling.