AI and Crypto Have a Culture Challenge (and Opportunity)
Over the holidays and into the new year, I've been asking friends and former colleagues a simple question: What's the most positive depiction of AI or crypto in culture—movies, TV shows, books, etc.—that you can think of?
About 85% of the time, I get long pauses, furrowed brows, and contemplative stares into the middle distance. When I have gotten answers, the most common have been:
Star Trek, particularly The Next Generation - what is Data if not a super-smart, super-helpful artificial intelligence?
Her, where the protagonist's AI assistant Samantha can be said to be a net positive on the protagonist Theodore's life (maybe someone should try and put that voice in a product…)
Silicon Valley, with both crypto and AI being part of the Pied Piper team's building of a new internet, among other (primarily satirical) AI-focused themes
Mr. Robot, where Bitcoin and other fictional cryptocurrencies play a meaningful role in the cypherpunk resistance against nefarious corporatism
That's... not a long list. And the fact that most people struggle to come up with examples strikes me as a significant problem for these technologies, and for those of us whose job is communicating about them.
When people see AI and crypto represented in popular culture currently, they're bombarded with signals suggesting these technologies are either nefarious or, at best, not positive additions to their lives. For AI, it's almost always clearly depicted as the future, but almost exclusively not a future you want to live in. Crypto is often portrayed as either a joke or a tool for shady dealings. Think of Billions, where crypto transactions were used to evade law enforcement detection—a misnomer—or Ozark’s digital currency laundering plots.
Communications pros in these fields aren’t just fighting against competitive messaging or market skepticism. They’re fighting against at least a decade or more of cultural programming.
This matters because cultural representation is a precondition for accelerating mass consumer adoption. Look to the 1990s and how Hollywood depicted the burgeoning internet. You've Got Mail romanticized online connections well before online dating was a mainstay of modern life. Hackers made heroes of nerds who could manipulate computer networks for the good of society. The Net presented a more ambivalent view, showing both the internet's convenience (pizza delivery, anyone?) and its potential threats to identity and privacy.
Yes, there were cautionary tales like Johnny Mnemonic and The Lawnmower Man, but these films still portrayed digital technology as inevitable and transformative rather than inherently evil. These films collectively established a cultural frame where, despite potential dangers, the internet was depicted as empowering rather than fundamentally corrupting or dehumanizing.
AI and crypto don't have that cultural tailwind. Quite the opposite, they're fighting strong cultural headwinds into which all these companies’ comms and marketing efforts are flying.
A cultural narrative strategy
Both comms and marketing should think about culture and plot ambitious experimental strategies. It's an opportunity to shape the culture and present a brand—and an entire field of technology—in an entirely different light.
If I were a CCO or CMO at one of these companies, here's what I'd consider:
1. Get Hollywood on board
WME, CAA, UTA, and other major Hollywood agencies orchestrate much of the culture people consume globally, shaping what gets made before it reaches a studio, publisher, or network (a subject for another time and a different newsletter). AI and crypto companies should be partnered with them to find media projects where these technologies could be woven into storylines in positive, realistic ways. I would even put up some production money to make it easier for studios and publishers to greenlight projects.1
This isn't unprecedented. The US military has consulted on countless Hollywood films in exchange for access to equipment and locations. The tech industry could learn from this playbook—not to create propaganda but to ensure more balanced portrayals.
2. Incentivize more storytelling
I'd establish incentive mechanisms for creating great, technology-positive works—whether novels, plays, or screenplays.
This could take the form of a prize with a panel of judges from both technology and entertainment who evaluate submissions as both depictions of technology and artistic works. The result could resemble The Black List, which highlights the best unproduced screenplays each year.
Instead of just targeting tech influencers, consider partnerships with cultural voices outside the echo chamber. Artists, musicians, community leaders, and others who can speak to how these technologies enhance rather than threaten human creativity and agency.
3. Make culture yourself
The third approach is more direct: go out and make or commission works of culture. Lots of brand-made media ends up being cringeworthy or just plain boring because it takes on too promotional a valence, but it is possible to create or commission something that has resonance.
In 2001, BMW created some of the first branded video content by an auto company on the web—a series called The Hire starring Clive Owen and directed by major directors like John Woo, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, and Tony Scott, in which Owen played a driver completing deliveries and transport jobs in BMWs while being chased by bad guys. The series attracted so many fans that it transcended the web—they made and sold DVDs of the series, and the shorts were even screened at festivals.
This wasn't just fancy advertising—it reinforced how people viewed BMWs and the thrill of driving itself. Similarly, AI and crypto companies need to create content that not just showcases their technology but also creates new emotional associations with it. Not "look how our AI works" but "look how AI changes human stories in meaningful ways."
4. Align your messaging
Both consumer-facing AI and crypto companies have a tendency to focus on the technical rather than the cultural or emotional storytelling elements of their products. Or, if they do touch on these topics, it's with language that speaks to meta-societal change over personal impact. Many AI companies lead with "we won't replace humans" messaging that actually reinforces the fear. Crypto companies often focus on technical details while ignoring the emotional and cultural barriers to adoption.
The best antidote to dystopian sci-fi is real human experience. Find users who are using the technology in ways that defy negative stereotypes and elevate their stories aggressively.
"Does any of this matter?"
Those predisposed to skepticism of comms and marketing will argue that cultural skepticism will eventually fade if a technology delivers sufficient value. There's some truth to that, over a long enough time horizon.
But cultural narratives shape how people evaluate value in the first place and create mental models that determine whether users approach your product with curiosity or suspicion, optimism or fear. First impressions matter.
When a user encounters a new AI tool thinking, "This is probably going to try to replace jobs like mine," they're primed to focus on its flaws rather than its benefits. When someone approaches crypto thinking, "This is probably a scam," they're unlikely to stick around long enough to understand its potential advantages.
Great technology companies have always understood that they're not just selling products. They're selling visions of the future. Right now, the cultural vision of AI and crypto's future is largely being written by skeptics and dystopians. If companies in these spaces want that to change, they must make it happen themselves.
Astute Person Familiar readers of a certain age will recollect this is what tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor does in the Christopher Buckley satirical novel-turned-film Thank You For Smoking, a personal favorite, to change impressions around smoking. What makes the book and movie good satire is that plot elements like this are rooted in truth: brands and industries do this constantly.