Sure but the assumption here is that the game stays the same. That the only worthwhile intelligence is one that optimizes for revenue capture inside an ad economy.

But there’s a fork in the road. Either we keep pouring billions into nudging glorified autocomplete engines into better salespeople, or we start building agents that actually understand what they’re doing and why. Agents that learn, reflect, and refine; not just persuade.

The first path leads to a smarter shopping mall. The second leads out.