At the beginning of the internet we were promised the free flow of digital information between computers, peer-to-peer. What we got was silos of content each fighting each other to make sure that the silos stay intact with DRM.

I could imagine an AI future where agentic shopping companies who promise me the best deal are pitted against Walmart and Amazon, trying to algorithmically squeeze me for $2 more- just two bots playing a cat and mouse game to save me a few bucks.

For some reason a lot of tech ends up in these antagonistic monopolies- Apple wants to sell privacy aware devices as a product feature, Google wants give you mail and maps, but sell your data. Despite any appearances neither give a shit about you, even if you benefit from the dynamic.