Geomedia Speaker Series

GEOMEDIA SPEAKER SERIES: The Personal Superintelligence Frontier: An Anticipatory Research Agenda

Professor Mark Whitehead, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University 

• Karlstad University
• October 29, 2026
• Room: 1B309 Sjöström
• 14:00-15:30

Our lives our currently saturated by the claims and counterclaims swirling around Artificial Intelligence. Caught within contemporary existential debates about the empowering potential of “abundant intelligence” and daily risk assessments of potential human extinction, it has been easy to miss what is perhaps one of the most significant developments in the technological trajectory of AI. In 2025 Meta outlined its vision of personal superintelligence.

From a technical point of view, personal superintelligence is pitched as an AI-based personal assistant (the goal of developing personalised AI assistants is now common within the sector). Unlike centralised models, which may be trained for societal problems in environmental and medical science (among more ambiguous goals), personalised superintelligence is focused on individual human subjects and their daily needs.

It is claimed, by companies such as Meta and Open AI, that the personalisation of Artificial Intelligence can reduce the cognitive load of our busy and complicated lives, improve the effectiveness of our decision-making, uncover greater efficiencies in our routines, enable us to become better friends and colleagues, and  empower us to more consistently achieve our short and long-term goals. While the form factor of personalised superintelligence is still to be settled upon, it is clear that glasses are Meta’s preference.

Due to its potential to technologically automate the most intimate aspects of our private lives, some see personal superintelligence as the unofficial finish line of the AI industry. This paper outlines the nature and justificatory logics behind the promotion of personal superintelligent agents, drawing particular attention to claims of technological decentralisation, personalised AI alignment, and the balancing of digital power. As a basis for anticipatory research into this emerging technology, analysis will then set out a critical framework for the interpretation of personal superintelligence.

In part this will focus on long-held concerns over digital privacy and surveillance. But analysis will also introduce more novel concerns related to “cognitive deregulation” and the anthropological and moral visions encoded within the personal superintelligence movement.

Mark Whitehead is a Professor of Geography at Aberystwyth University in Wales. His previous work has explored various aspects of behavioural governance and smart-technology. He is a Fellow of the Independent Social Research Foundation and Co-Editor of the journal Humanities and Social Science Communications. He is currently completing a Leverhulme Research Fellowship exploring personal superintelligence.

-----   -----

GEOMEDIA SPEAKER SERIES - WHEN FORESTS BECOME BATTLEGROUNDS: MEDIA, POLARIZATION AND GOVERNANCE

Kristina Riegert, Södertörn University

• Karlstad University
• November 12, 2026
• Room: 12A226 (house 12)
• 14:00-15:30

Societies today face two interlinked and urgent challenges: implementing a green transition towards sustainability and preserving democratic legitimacy at a time of declining trust in institutions, science, and journalism. In the age of climate change and biodiversity loss, forests in Sweden have become the subject of heated media debates. 

These debates often reflect tensions between multiple forest values, among them the economic use of forests versus ecological functions such as carbon storage and biodiversity protection. The media amply and co-structure the debates and can enable particular interests to shape what the conflict is about. 

One example of this is the acrimonious debates related to the Church of Sweden’s forest inquiry, where competing frames structured problem definitions and plausible solutions. Rather than tempering disagreement, these framings accentuated polarization by amplifying adversarial cues and narrowing attention to win-lose stakes. This also had real-world consequences for the recent church election, where green parties gained ground. In forest-climate debates, journalism is also important – journalists negotiate credibility, authority, and relevance. 

Our research on Nordic journalists covering “green conflicts” shows how reporters embedded in conflict-affected communities face intense audience feedback and perform substantial emotional labour, which may lead to focusing on episodic citizen–politics disputes rather than the broader climate dimension of the conflict. 

Forest–climate debates hinge on contested evidence and values. It is therefore important to examine how scientists participate as sources, explainers, and interlocutors in legacy and social media and how this shapes journalistic practice and citizens’ capacity to reason across disagreement. Research ultimately needs to illuminate the dynamics of mediated conflict to understand how discursive power in forest-climate issues is achieved in order to provide insight into democratic deficits. 

Kristina Riegert is Professor of Journalism at Södertörn University (Stockholm). Her work examines how national and transnational media make sense of globally mediated events, in crisis and conflict journalism, as well as how the political infuses popular culture and cultural journalism.

Current work is related to media framing of forest–climate debates in the Baltic Sea region at a time of increasing polarization and disputed governance around forests. Her books include Politicotainment: Television’s Take on the Real and Kulturjournalistikens världar (co‑edited), alongside articles in leading communication and journalism journals.