Neural Synchrony of Minds and Machines

Artificial intelligence (AI) predicts behavior by learning from user data collected through digitally mediated interfaces. Virtual spaces—such as online social networks—extend the physical world into virtual worlds, leveraging AI technologies to transform user behavior into digital assets by mimicking the brain’s reinforcement networks. Social media platforms utilize AI to manipulate user behavior through rewards that can diverge from the user’s intended goals. This misalignment fragments user behavior and cognition, resulting in virtual disembodiment. This article presents a conceptual mechanism based on the hippocampal networks to synchronize AI and the brain, synthesizing the user’s physical and mental presence in virtual spaces.