AI and the layered evolution of information landscapes

Counts differ because each database indexes a different set of publications. We treat OpenAlex as the canonical count; Google Scholar is not shown (no API, and crawling it violates its ToS).

The rapid adoption of generative AI has sparked debates about whether we are experiencing revolutionary disruption or evolutionary transformation of the information landscape. While headlines proclaim unprecedented changes, understanding AI's impact requires situating current developments within the evolution of how we have created, shared, and used information over centuries. We argue that generative AI represents not a radical break, but the latest interim layer in an evolving information landscape, progressing from pre‐digital systems through centralized computing, personal computing, the web, and social media. We outline the characteristics of each layer, including information infrastructures, information flows, and human roles. We discuss how layers have built upon predecessors while introducing novel challenges and opportunities: the web democratized publishing, social media enabled viral many‐to‐many networks, and generative AI now positions machines as co‐creators in hybrid intelligence systems. This means, rather than displacing earlier infrastructures, developments like generative AI add complexity to the information landscape, in which multiple layers coexist and interact. By recognizing both continuity and novelty in the evolution of our information infrastructure, we can more effectively navigate the generative AI era and ensure that technological advancement augments rather than replaces human agency, while preparing for the sociotechnical challenges it inevitably brings.