Follow the Money
Corporate power and the data economy
Understand who owns AI, what they collect, and who pays the hidden costs. Trace the flow of power from your data to corporate profit, from artists to AI training sets, from rural towns to data centers. End by designing alternatives.
Scroll down to begin your journey. Each experience builds on the last.
The Energy Bill
Who really pays for your free AI?
Track your daily AI usage and calculate the energy cost. Then discover who really pays: Mesa, Arizona (Meta data centers, 905M gallons water, extreme drought). West Des Moines, Iowa (Microsoft, 70M gallons, city's largest water user). Northern Virginia (AWS, 102 data centers, 70% of world's internet). Small towns sacrifice water, energy, and quality of life for your free ChatGPT.
Data Poisoning as Art
Can you corrupt the training data?
How artists are fighting back against AI theft. Explore Nightshade and Glaze - tools that poison training data and protect art styles. Real research from University of Chicago. Real impact on Stable Diffusion and Midjourney. The ethics of digital resistance.
Design Counter-Algorithms
What if algorithms served humans?
Design your ideal algorithm with 6 value sliders: Confirmation↔Challenge, Viral↔Quality, Endless↔Finite, Echo Chamber↔Diversity, Outrage↔Calm, Machine↔Human. Then apply your algorithm to real products—Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter/X, Netflix, LinkedIn—and see how each platform would be reimagined. Switch between tabs to compare current vs. reimagined versions. Discover real alternatives: Mastodon, BeReal, RSS, Wikipedia, Substack. Actionable steps: chronological feeds, turn off recommendations, follow fewer but deeper.
Your Turn
You've completed 7 experiences in "Follow the Money".
What's missing? What did you learn that we didn't cover? What invisible system needs to be made visible?
33.3 is unfinished by design. We're broadcasting at an incomplete frequency, waiting for your signal.
Share your experience idea. If it fits, we'll build it and credit you.