You aren't 'scrolling' for fun; you're working a second job for free to build AI.
April 15, 2026
Original Paper
The Economics of Entangled Time: Simultaneous Production-Consumption, Synthetic Substitutability, and the Terminal Limits of Human Capital
SSRN · 6576142
The Takeaway
We think of our time on social media as leisure or a simple distraction. This paper argues it’s actually 'Dark GDP'—uncompensated cognitive labor that we provide to AI companies every time we like a post or scroll a feed. Our interaction data is the 'fuel' that creates AI capital, yet we aren't paid for this essential work. This 'entangled time' explains why the share of money going to human workers is falling globally while tech companies get richer. You aren't the customer; you're an unpaid factory worker in the digital economy.
From the abstract
This paper introduces Entangled Time --- a novel economic variable representing the simultaneous production-consumption state characterizing human engagement with algorithmic digital interfaces. We develop a formal equilibrium model in which rational agents allocate time to zero-price digital platforms, where their behavioral data constitutes unpriced cognitive labor driving AI capital formation. We demonstrate three principal results. First, under a non-stationary algorithmic resonance state fo