Is Big Brother Now an Algorithm? Revisiting 1984 in the Age of AI

When George Orwell penned 1984, did he foresee a future where Big Brother would be replaced by algorithms? While Orwell's dystopian vision revolved around a totalitarian state fueled by surveillance, modern technology presents an even more pervasive possibility—AI quietly collecting, analyzing, and controlling our lives. Have we willingly handed over our freedoms to the algorithmic gaze?

In 1984, Orwell created a world where the government constantly monitors citizens through an omnipresent surveillance apparatus. “Big Brother is watching you,” the Party reminds people, enforcing control through fear and oppression. The frightening aspect of Orwell’s world isn’t just that it exists, but that the population accepts it as a necessary evil. Today, we see echoes of Orwell’s dystopia not in government per se but in the algorithms that govern much of our online and offline lives—predicting our behaviors, filtering our news, and increasingly, making decisions about our careers, finances, and freedoms.

The rise of artificial intelligence introduces new dimensions to Orwell’s surveillance state. While 1984 described crude methods of control—telescreens and secret police—our current reality has evolved into one of invisible monitoring through data collection and algorithmic profiling. The technology that was once fiction is now routine: cameras on every corner, digital assistants in every room, facial recognition technology, and social media algorithms that know us better than we know ourselves. The notion that "Big Brother is watching" has been replaced with "The algorithm is learning."

The Subtle Power of AI

Orwell’s society operated on the principle of fear, where dissent was punishable by disappearance. The modern AI equivalent doesn’t need force—it works silently in the background, nudging our behaviors, selling us products, and shaping the information we consume. The personalization of content, for example, may seem like a convenience, but what happens when AI decides what you should see and what remains hidden? We are no longer just passive consumers; we are now commodities in an ever-evolving data economy.

The chilling part? Unlike Orwell’s world, where surveillance was overt and feared, we welcome AI into our lives. We willingly sign away privacy rights for the convenience of personalized services. It’s as if Orwell’s "Ministry of Truth" has been rebranded as Silicon Valley. Instead of fearing Big Brother, we’ve become comfortable with the invisible algorithmic watchers that analyze every click, purchase, and scroll, quietly shaping our lives in ways we don’t fully understand.

In 1984, Winston reflects, “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake.” AI developers might not seek Orwellian control, but there’s a subtle parallel. Today’s algorithms are designed to optimize engagement and maximize profit—whether by tech giants or data-driven corporations. This pursuit of control through user data raises ethical questions: how much influence do these algorithms exert over our lives, and at what cost to our autonomy?

Surveillance Capitalism: The New Big Brother

The term surveillance capitalism, popularized by Shoshana Zuboff, describes how personal data has become the primary asset of the modern economy. Zuboff’s work highlights that data collection goes beyond mere surveillance. Instead of watching to control citizens through fear (as Orwell’s Party does), corporations monitor behaviors to predict and influence future actions. In this version of 1984, control isn’t maintained through force but through the invisible hand of the market, driven by algorithms that predict our desires and behaviors before we even know them ourselves.

Social media platforms serve as prime examples. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have built empires by perfecting algorithms that keep users engaged for as long as possible. These platforms collect vast amounts of data—who we interact with, what we like, even how long we pause on certain content—and use this data to create a personalized feed that’s designed to keep us scrolling. In Orwell’s world, the Party controlled the information people consumed. In today’s world, algorithms do the same, shaping what news articles, advertisements, and even friendships we see.

However, while Orwell's Party ruled through fear, today’s AI giants thrive on pleasure and convenience. The more you engage, the more data they collect, and the more personalized—and addictive—the experience becomes. As Orwell warned in 1984, “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” Algorithms today do not need to tear minds apart, but they certainly reshape our reality.

Where Does This Leave Us?

The ethical dilemmas surrounding AI are increasingly difficult to ignore. Should we surrender so much of our private lives to these powerful technologies? Much like Winston’s eventual acceptance of the Party’s dominance, many of us have become resigned to AI's presence, accepting the benefits without much thought to the costs. The AI systems that manage everything from our social media to financial institutions are largely inscrutable. We don’t know how they make decisions, but we trust them to work for us.

Perhaps Orwell’s most significant prediction wasn’t surveillance itself but the apathy of citizens under constant monitoring. “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever,” he wrote. In our context, the “boot” isn’t one of force but one of convenience—algorithms constantly stamping out free will, replacing it with patterns of behavior driven by data.

To navigate the future, we must critically examine the impact of AI on our lives and demand transparency from the systems that wield so much influence. Orwell’s vision may not have come true in its exact form, but the underlying warning—about the dangers of unchecked power—remains more relevant than ever.

References:

Orwell, George. 1984. Penguin Classics, 2003.

Zuboff, Shoshana. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. PublicAffairs, 2019.

Eubanks, Virginia. Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. St. Martin’s Press, 2018.

O'Neil, Cathy. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. Crown, 2016.

This exploration of 1984 in the context of AI highlights how Orwell’s prescient warnings about surveillance, control, and the loss of autonomy have evolved—and perhaps worsened—in the digital age. It’s not just Big Brother watching us anymore—it’s an entire ecosystem of algorithms quietly shaping our reality.