Attention is all they need: cognitive science and the (techno)political economy of attention in humans and machines
AI & SOCIETY January 1, 2026 Pablo González Torre, Marta Pérez-verdugo, Xabier E. Barandiaran
Digital platforms exploit the attention economy by using AI and data analytics to shape user engagement, creating cycles of attention capture and data extraction. Classical cognitivist and behaviorist theories fail to address harms to user autonomy and wellbeing. 4E approaches to cognitive science—emphasizing embodied, extended, enactive, and ecological cognition—provide a normative standpoint for understanding how digital environments actively constitute attentional patterns. Habit formation in digital contexts threatens personal autonomy by disaggregating habits into AI-managed behavioral patterns. A paradigm shift toward an ecology of attention is needed to foster environments that preserve human cognitive and social capacities against cognitive capitalism's exploitative tendencies.