Meta wants to fill its social platforms with AI-generated bots

[Alfonso Maruccia]

WTF?! Meta owns some of the most popular social networks on the planet, collectively used by billions of people. However, the future could see a shift toward bots and AI-generated "characters" designed to drive engagement and keep increasingly automated platforms afloat.

Meta is actively working to transform its social media platforms into spaces where AI bots interact with each other. Over the next few years, the company formerly known as Facebook aims to integrate AI technology to boost "engagement" with its three billion real, human users. This could either be a revolution or just another disastrously misguided idea, like the previously dismissed "metaverse" VR ecosystem.

Meta is currently developing several AI products, including a service designed to help users create AI bots on Instagram and Facebook. These bots could clone users' personalities and interact with other (non-bot) users on the network. The company hopes to attract younger audiences, who are apparently going crazy over AI these days.

Connor Hayes, Meta's vice president of product for generative AI, told the Financial Times that the company expects these AI bots to eventually exist on its platform just like user accounts do today. The bots will have fake biographies and profile pictures, sharing new "content" generated by AI models.

Integrating generative AI into Facebook, Instagram, and other networks is now a priority, Hayes stated. Meta's apps need to become more entertaining and engaging. The executive mentioned that hundreds of thousands of characters have already been created with the previously released AI tools, which are currently available to US users and will soon expand to other markets.

One interesting tidbit shared by Hayes is that the majority of these fake AI characters have been kept private by their creators. This could be a telltale sign that very few content creators are currently viewing generative AI as a mature, reliable, and useful technology for boosting engagement.

Meta confirmed that most users have been using AI tools to embellish, adjust, and improve their photos and other "real-world" content. Other companies are also focusing on deploying generative AI capabilities on their respective networks, with Snapchat and TikTok doing their part to turn the social internet into an uncanny parody of itself.

Critics of this AI-filled dystopia warn about the risks related to the "weaponization" of AI-generated content. Becky Owen, innovation officer at creative agency Billion Dollar Boy and former head of Meta's creator team, said fake AI accounts could easily be used to amplify false narratives if robust safeguards are not enforced on social media.

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Meta wants to fill its social platforms with AI-generated bots

 

[toooooot]

Soon it will be the only way, in the absence of real members

 

[m3diapers]

Flirting with someone for two years, only to find out it was a bot the whole time—absolutely savage and classic. I can’t wait to see a headline like that someday!

 

[Kirby1]

Isn't it already filled with bits?

 

[NumberNine]

Most people won't notice because it's an echo chamber and their interactions are just that shallow.

 

[Nobina]

So when people are discussing politics, AI, a glorified search engine, pretending to be a real human, will jump in to "correct" people who are having the wrong opinion.

 

[deathspeed]

Big Tech wants "AI everywhere" so bad that they cannot see that most people are indifferent to it, if not downright hostile to it

 

[FaTaL]

This is already happening. Not news. move on

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Look at these comments, its really not different from interacting with other people online. Everyone here could already be a bot/AI and it wouldn't change anything.

So long as these bots are given some "personality" parameters so it doesn't come off as a bunch of robots talking to each other... let's give it a shot.

 

[toooooot]

What I find more annoying is fake reviews. fake reviews for games, moves, products.
It becomes hard to trust them at all. And they are getting better where the language can mimic
the style of normal people rather than English professors like I saw personally on IMDB under some pretty bad shows.

 

[user478318]

Real people on these platforms are worse then bots

 

[p51d007]

LOL, how many of the "I just read your profile and comments and think that we could be friends bla bla bla", and of course, if your screen name is male, the profile photo will be of a pretty girl and if your profile name is female, it the photo will be of a handsome man.
DUH! Already happening.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Social media has been in rapid decay mode since it first launched. You are a long way behind the times

 

[maxxcool7421]

Since you will be able to choose the AI bots on your feed that will be fine with me. I wont have to block as many science fearing, rainbow fearing repuglikkkans

 

[RudyBob]

If we are lucky it will be such an abject failure that FB will change and start listening to us rather than yelling at us

 

[psycros]

Since you will be able to choose the AI bots on your feed that will be fine with me. I wont have to block as many science fearing, rainbow fearing repuglikkkans

Rainbow? As in people who think men can give birth? That's about as anti-science as it gets.

 

[puckle]

Real people on these platforms are worse then bots

How do you know they are real?

 

[kira setsu]

How do you know they are real?

I honestly don't think bots can be as hateful as real people.

 

[mbk34]

I honestly don't think bots can be as hateful as real people.

Give them time.

 

[mgilbert]

We can only hope that this is the beginning of the end social media...

 

[zulu53]

Using bots to correct (defeat) all of the large number of human false narratives that currently exist. Sounds fantastic. Maybe human readers would thus be encouraged to take the education, time and effort to fact check for themselves: since it would become evident to even the most ignorant that believing what the narratives say is not something that will lead them to be a better life.

 

[zulu53]

News flash to Becky Owen: human accounts have been used for years to amplify false narratives, despite "safeguards" being put in place and it has only been getting worse year by year. Perhaps making it really bad by including AI accounts might finally lead to some sort of "fact checking" safeguards being invented and used. Poison the pond to the extent that people will not drink the water until such safeguards are in place.

 

[zulu53]

So when people are discussing politics, AI, a glorified search engine, pretending to be a real human, will jump in to "correct" people who are having the wrong opinion.

Saving the time of the humans who do it now. Of course that would leave these humans with nothing to do.

 

[Porkous]

Most fun one would be one that sparks flame and engagement as it is happening when new video cards gets released...

Imagine the master mind behind these bots. What plethora of arguments and comebacks can script/create and just have a laughter after madness is over.

 

[Nobina]

Using bots to correct (defeat) all of the large number of human false narratives that currently exist. Sounds fantastic. Maybe human readers would thus be encouraged to take the education, time and effort to fact check for themselves: since it would become evident to even the most ignorant that believing what the narratives say is not something that will lead them to be a better life.

Bots will not defeat false narratives, they will just push theirs. The ones who make them, Meta, control them and what they say. It is frightening to see people being this naive to think some CEO will create bots that will fight for the truth or some bull ****.