We propose a framework for measuring attentional agency - the ability to allocate one's attention according to personal desires, goals, and intentions - on digital platforms. Platforms extend people's limited powers of attention by extrapolating their preferences to large collections of previously unconsidered informational objects. However, platforms typically also allow people to influence one another's attention. We introduce a formal framework for measuring how much a given platform empowers people to both pull information into their own attentional field and push information into the attentional fields of others. We also use these definitions to shed light on the implications of generative foundation models, which enable users to bypass the implicit "attentional bargain" that underlies embedded advertising and other methods for capturing economic value from informational goods. We conclude with a set of policy strategies that can be used to understand and reshape the distribution of attentional agency online.

翻译：我们提出一个衡量数字平台上注意力能动性的框架——即根据个人意愿、目标与意图分配自身注意力的能力。平台通过将用户偏好外推至大量先前未被考虑的信息对象集合，从而扩展了人们有限的注意力能力。然而，平台通常也允许人们相互影响彼此的注意力。我们引入一个形式化框架，用于衡量特定平台在多大程度上赋能用户：既能够将信息拉入自身的注意力场域，也能将信息推入他人的注意力场域。此外，我们运用这些定义来阐释生成式基础模型的影响——这类模型使用户能够绕过嵌入式广告及其他从信息商品中获取经济价值的方法所依赖的隐性“注意力契约”。最后，我们提出一系列可用于理解并重塑线上注意力能动性分布的政策策略。