Adam Aleksic, a self-described etymology nerd and content creator, spoke to the TEDNext 2025 audience about how new technology shapes how we speak to each other, how algorithms distort reality, and how social media platforms priortize profit over people.

I always see controversial messages go more viral because they generate more engagement than a neutral perspective. But that means we all end up seeing this more extreme version of reality and we’re clearly starting to confuse that with actual reality.

Aleksic put a finer point on it by examining the language of ChatGPT and other AI models, which can be just as, or even more, distorted by subconscious biases.

The same thing is currently happening with AI chat bots because you probably assume that ChatGPT is speaking English to you except it’s not speaking English. In the same way that the algorithm is not showing you reality, there are always distortions depending on what goes into the model and how it’s trained.

Aleksic also encouraged the audience to ask certain questions of themselves in discerning truth as these platforms will not willingly provide it.

Everything that ends up in your social media feed or in your chatbot responses is actually filtered through many layers of what’s good for the platform, what makes money, and what conforms to the platform’s incorrect idea about who you are. When we ignore this, we view reality through a constant survivorship bias, which affects our understanding of the world.

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