The plot twist for 2026: everything to expect, acceleration, AI, or other buzzwords, is not selling well.
Just no. People do not want it. My projection of 2026 is that it will be the year of recalibration. 2025 “slop” became the word of the year. 2026 will be the rebellion of it.
AI is not going anywhere, world perspective is changing. In communication (internet), most people are simply yearning for something real. And it boggling my mind why every big corporation fails to understand that.
AI videos, AI images, and AI words will continue to flood the mainstream internet, but most people will choose to reject them anyway, plenty of them become extremist. But a small number will gain the real advantage, surpassing the confusion, the uncanny valley. They really know how to use it, when to use it and when not.
Most important thing to remember:
Whatever the outcome, be human.
I like to zooming out internet response. Investor in fumbling and corps doing whatever to delay the bubble burst, history always repeat.
If we reflect back, 2023-2024-2025 is cumulative of new tech paradigm introduction. Since pandemic, world are brute forcing almost every breathing soul to step into the internet.
I say something my gut dictates. This year is really exhausting year to exist as creatives. Reflected on timelines, confusion speak louder than understanding. Whether you’re expert or have no clue, or zoomer or boomer, have same stage to response that thing.
Anti-ai bros and ai-bros opinion booth are too goofy to bear. Anti-ai miss the mark of machine are immortal, ai-bros missed the mark of what makes them human at the first place. The more you try to paint in black and white, the more you look like a jester.
Like really, we need to step back and take a deep breath, figuring out “what the actual frick just happen” xD
So when the bubble burst, just like internet, we view AI like ordinaries thing, nothing too wah. Humans still doing human things, loving effort, respecting scars, admiring dedication when it’s real.
I have big question that only can be answered few years to come: “what the outcome human can achieve with all current technology, if one person have the same input power as renaissance man, which one masterpiece takes years or even decades”
I like to say this, no matter the convenience era has to offer, no matter the tools have evolved, seek the hard things, seek discomfort. If it too easy, it’s often not worth it.
So yea, 2026 is likely to be the year people recalibrate their views, their landscape, and expect that hard things will come. Humans can suffer, but machines can’t. To live is to enjoy suffering hhehehe.