The Empowerment Imperative - Building Agentic Marketing That Serves Humans

TL;DR - This All-Hands builds on our research series to explore the fork in agentic marketing: extraction vs. empowerment. We’ll use this framework to prototype “Agency Layer” systems - agents that optimize for human flourishing, not just clicks. The article below is your foundation for the Gemini 3 Hackathon, where you’ll apply these ideas to build next-generation, empowerment-aligned applications.

From Intention to Empowerment

In Phenomenology of Search we studied the geometry of meaning. In Memory & Agency we gave models a sense of continuity. In Geometry of Intention we learned to recognize human goals. Now we face the critical question: what do we optimize those goals for?

Thesis: Agentic marketing is a fork in the road. The same machinery that can maximize compulsion can maximize empowerment. The objective function decides. We’re building the empowerment path.

Read the full deep-dive: The Empowerment Imperative: Rewriting Agentic Marketing from Extraction to Human Flourishing

Build-In-Public Sprint - “The Agency Layer”

Goal: Prototype an empowerment-aligned agent that demonstrates the alternative to extraction-based marketing. You’ll connect theory to practice by building systems that optimize for human flourishing.

Track A - Core Agency Layer (Infrastructure)

Track B - Empowerment Commerce Agent (Application)

Recognition: Submit to the Gemini 3 Hackathon hosted by Google DeepMind. Internal showcase winners get featured in our Labs Showcase and the open-source repository.

Hackathon Details - Gemini 3 (Hosted by Google DeepMind)

• Deadline: 10 Feb 2026 @ 3:00am GMT+2
• Prizes: $100,000 in cash + AI Futures Fund interviews
• Register: Join the Gemini 3 Hackathon
• Participants: 10,500+ builders worldwide

Prize Breakdown

Judging Criteria

• Technical Execution (40%) - Quality development, Gemini 3 integration
• Innovation / Wow Factor (30%) - Novel ideas, unique solutions
• Potential Impact (20%) - Real-world usefulness, problem significance
• Presentation / Demo (10%) - Clear problem definition, effective demo

Why join? Gemini 3 represents the next leap in AI reasoning and multimodal capabilities. This is your chance to build agents that serve humans using the Empowerment Imperative framework - and prove that ethical AI is also better AI.

Acceptance Criteria

• Goal Alignment - Explicit user goals, not just behavioral inference
• Consent Architecture - Personalization requires opt-in
• Constraint System - Hard stops on exploitation patterns
• Dual Metrics - Track both performance AND agency
• Empowerment Demo - Show capability expansion, not just conversion

Bonus

• Alienation detection with real-time alerts
• Trust accumulation visualization over time
• Integration with commerce platforms (Shopify, Stripe, etc.)
• Comparison mode: extraction agent vs. empowerment agent on same task

The Code

We’re building this in public. The repository will contain:

• Goal Alignment Engine
• Alienation Detection System
• Agency Optimizer
• Constraint Checker with dark pattern detection
• Dual metrics dashboard

Repository: Coming soon at github.com/ai-knowledge-hub

Discussion Prompts

• Where is the line between “personalization” and “exploitation”?
• Can empowerment optimization be as profitable as extraction? More profitable?
• How do we measure “agency” in a way that’s rigorous and actionable?
• What happens when an empowerment agent competes against extraction agents?
• Could we build industry standards around the Agency Layer?

Add your thoughts in the comments or our internal #empowerment-imperative channel.

Reference Pack

• Part 1 - Phenomenology of Search
• Part 2 - Memory & Agency
• Part 3 - Geometry of Intention
• Part 4 - The Empowerment Imperative
• Agentic Commerce Research
• Gemini 3 Hackathon Rules

Call to Action Use the Empowerment Imperative framework to build agents that serve, not exploit. Join the Gemini 3 Hackathon, ship working code, and show the world that the fork in agentic marketing leads somewhere worth going. The code is the argument. Let’s write it together.