Before you reply about the typo in our headline, it's intentional.
Welcome to You’re Attention!
The fight for your attention is already the biggest business in the world, and the mass adoption of AI, accelerating at an unprecedented pace, will change every business that relies on it.
So what does that mean for you and your business? You’re Attention is where we will be having these conversations.
What started with an essay, grew to a book, and this is where we will continue the conversation.
We value attention more than most, so we will only be in your inbox when there’s insights and analysis worthy of your very precious attention.
First Up: Everything is Search.
AI has been quietly shaping humans for decades: influencing our information diet, our purchases, where we might choose to go on vacation, or even date.
Today, an astonishing percentage of the global economy—trillions upon trillions of dollars in market valuation—is built on top of algorithms competing to attract, harvest, and monetize attention. Search is how people access everything. Many have called Google’s business the greatest business model in history. All because it dominated search. And last week, Google’s market cap dropped half a trillion dollars in a single day. Gen AI is why.
Search Engine Marketing, the advertising business model at the core of Google, is the infrastructure of the internet economy — and therefore a large part of the global economy. Google’s mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” through search made it the operating system of the internet.
The seminal paper “Attention is All You Need” that kicked off the current AI arms race was written by almost entirely Google engineers, but google didn’t release ChatGPT. AI is better search. Or, more accurately, Generative AI is better search “results”, which better fulfills Google’s mission statement.
Google’s business wasn’t just using AI to optimize access to information, it was using AI to maximize revenue. With this, Google could command a share of almost all commerce that originated in its search box.
The paradigm shift of AI as an answer engine upends this all. Google could still win, but it will have to remake the most profitable business model in history. And so will every business that makes money after people put information into a search box on their phone, website or TV OS.
The LLMs are making the world’s information much more accessible and useful, but they don’t have a model to make money themselves, let alone compensate the people who make the world’s information. All of which begs the question: what will the LLMs feed on in the future?
This is something highly worthy of your attention. We will update with relevant articles and real world examples of the shift as we see them.
What You Should Pay Attention To
If AI reads the internet but never visits it, who pays for it? Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince argues AI is consuming the web without sending traffic back to its creators. The old deal of content for clicks is breaking. Watch →
Followers don’t mean what they used to. Social media consultant Rachel Karten on the shift to algorithmic discovery and why brands and creators have to keep earning their audiences. Listen →
What if the first reader isn’t human? On 20VC, Parag Agrawal explores what happens to advertising when AI agents do the browsing. Listen →
May I Have Your Attention
Human Dot AI: How the Fight for Your Attention Became the World’s Biggest Business is out now!
Written by Joe Marchese, CEO of Human Ventures, Human Dot AI examines how the world’s biggest companies have battled to capture and control the attention economy — and how in process they’ve built a system that undervalues the very thing it runs on: your attention.
Whatever your industry, Human Dot AI will change how you see the business of your attention. The question is no longer whether AI will transform the economy. The question is whether AI, put to work for humans instead of advertising revenue, will fix the broken Attention Economy…or complete the collapse.
Human Dot AI is already the #1 New Release in the Media & Communications category!
Reach to the Human Ventures team directly for speaking requests.
Human, In Person
As AI makes content cheaper and more abundant, the difference between reaching someone and having their attention is becoming astoundingly clear.
Human relationships and in person experiences matter more than ever. In person, people stay longer, ask better questions, and build trust in ways that are difficult to replicate through a screen.
This fall, our gatherings have brought together leaders across sports, media, climate, hospitality, and technology.
Subscribers to You’re Attention will receive invitations to curated events and opportunities to join the conversations we’re bringing together.
More from our gatherings
Human House, Climate Week at Casa Komos: Leaders across film, business, finance, and climate came together to explore how storytelling, capital, and collaboration can move environmental work forward.
Host the Hosts with Caper: A gathering of the people behind New York’s restaurants, hotels, and experiences, connecting those who understand the work of bringing people together.
Dog Days of Summer with LightShed: An evening around the US Open that brought media and technology leaders together, making room for old relationships and new connections.
Coming Up Next
More conversations and gatherings are on the calendar this November, exploring topics from AI and human connection to the future of sports and fandom. We’ll be in your inbox when there’s something worth your attention.
We Invest in Humans First.
Human Ventures is a New York-based holding company built on creating long-term value in the new attention economy. With the core investment themes of human connection, experience, and trust in the age of AI, Human consists of three divisions: Human VC, an early stage venture fund; Human Ventures Studios, a dedicated studio building breakthrough AI-native companies; and Human Experiences & Partners, a corporate partnerships and events platform.
Founded by Heather Hartnett and Joe Marchese, Human is among the most connected capital partners; and has invested in and co-built more than 65 companies, with key investments including Reserve (acquired), Komos Tequila, Adelaide Metrics, Kinema, Caper, Breakaway, and Evvy. To learn more, visit www.human.vc.