Cold War culture vs. AI-driven culture

Cold War culture vs. AI-driven culture

How do the surveillance, control, and ideological themes compare in Cold War print media and in the era of AI-driven print media, particularly in terms of information dissemination, public influence, and censorship?

Cold War culture

• Intense geopolitical tensions
• A fierce competition for cultural superiority and global influence through soft power and propaganda as direct confrontation was impossible.

The MAD doctrine and nuclear deterrence led us to live in a permanent state of fear and anxiety that we are still not out of.

Duck and Cover campaign by the Federal Civil Defense Administration

AI-driven culture

AI is not only a tool but a core aspect of the organisation?

• data-centric
• centered around automation and efficiency.
• strong emphasis on continuous learning.
• modern culture and turned towards progress: innovation is always desirable and beneficial.
• strong leadership

AI-driven culture is, for now, largely defined by and for (american) corporations.

The influence of media

• The hypodermic needle and strong media theories
• Limited-effects theory in The People's Choice (P. Lazarsfeld and E. Katz)

Cold War Print Media and Ideological Control

Control and propaganda in print media

Control through censorship

A non-exhaustive list of banned books in the USSR :

• Ivan Bunin, Cursed Days
• Yevgeny Zamyatin, We
• Mikhail Bulgakov, The Heart of a Dog
• Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago
• Ilya Ehrenburg, Vasily Grossman, The Black Book

• Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate
• Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
• Eugenia Ginzburg, Journey into the Whirlwind
• Verse of Silver Age poets
• Most western media

Possession of banned print media was a form of resistance, the Samizdat for example it was even a form of counter culture.

AI-Driven Print Media and Contemporary Control

Cold War culture vs. AI-driven culture

On the use of AI: ethicals concerns, anonymity, protection of illegal activity, and accountability On other heritages from the Cold War:1. Relationship with the former "third world":- AI-driven culture is deeply rooted in American culture and corporate culture (imperalism?) - Superiority through technological and scientific knowledge and innovation-> The Spencer Stuart Culture Alignment framework (LEARNING and PURPOSE): cultures married with a sense of a higher purpose have driven the whole {AI }experience. -> The new space race: China, India, US and private investors, the new international space station project- Global popular culture and Internet culture: English as the universal language and American influencevs. Distribution of non-western media- Cyber attacks and espionage (e.g., the American Stuxnet worm to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program)2. The US/China rivalry: GAMAM vs. BATX and the TikTok ban (foreign influence and state control)On counter cultures and underground cultures: - The piracy and hacking cultures-> free access to knowledge, battle against gatekeeping and capitalism (e.g., International Pirate Party, Internet library)- Video game culture and bypassing censorship, e.g., the uncensored library on Minecraft - Resistance to American influence and cultural industries: Chinese and Russian platforms, GDPR, Bluesky, anti-face recognition make-up