Individual Media

Summary

Individual Media is a conceptual proposal for a new kind of information medium that shifts computing from delivering the same content to everyone toward generating information experiences tailored to each individual’s goals, context, and level of understanding. Rather than focusing on search, retrieval, or recommendation alone, the project asks a deeper question: what if media itself adapted to help each person gain comprehension? Individual Media explores how advances in computation and AI might transform not only access to information, but how information is formed and presented to support understanding.

At its core is the idea that information should become dynamic rather than fixed. Traditional media distributes identical artifacts — books, articles, broadcasts — to many people, leaving interpretation and adaptation entirely to the reader. Individual Media proposes media that can reorganize, summarize, restructure, and present information differently depending on individual needs while preserving user agency and comprehension. The goal is not automation of thinking, but support for faster, deeper, and more appropriate understanding of complex information.

This reframes media as an interactive cognitive interface rather than a static container. Instead of asking users to search through increasingly overwhelming collections of information, Individual Media imagines systems that actively assist comprehension while keeping users in control of retrieval and interpretation. In this vision, media evolves from mass distribution toward adaptive knowledge environments designed around human understanding.

We tried to come up with how the hyper-individualization of media could be used in positive ways, rather than just horror stories of weaponized filter bubbles. What I like about this project is that while many projects like this feel like they are trying very hard to be controversial, we very consciously decided not to. The dangers are abundantly clear and are (luckily!) being thoroughly discussed elsewhere, but it is hard to find honest attempts to come up with positive future scenarios, that are not technocratic, but human-centered.

Key concepts

• Media for comprehension The project focuses not on delivering information, but on improving how people gain understanding from increasingly complex information environments.
• Adaptive information presentation Media becomes dynamic and individualized, restructuring and presenting content differently depending on user goals and context.
• Human-centered AI AI is positioned as an augmentation layer that improves comprehension while preserving human control over interpretation and decision making.
• Information as an interface Content is no longer treated as a fixed document but as an interactive medium that supports navigation, exploration, and understanding.
• From retrieval to understanding The emphasis shifts from finding information toward helping people build meaningful comprehension and usable knowledge.

Individual Media proposes that the next major transition in media may not be another expansion in access, but a transformation in how information is shaped for human understanding. By treating media as something computationally adaptable and individually responsive, it extends the tradition of augmentation into the domain of comprehension itself. Its central challenge is not technological but human: how to create systems that help people understand more without reducing their agency, curiosity, or ability to think independently.

This idea was originally published as Improving Human Comprehension With Individualised AI-Based Text Modification. The project is available at futureofinformation.com, alongside project materials and further information.