Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is betting heavily on AI to drive user engagement on its social media platforms in the coming years. The company envisions human users engaging and sharing content with AI just like they do with friends and family on Facebook and Instagram.
The Financial Times reports that social media giant Meta is rolling out a slew of AI-powered products aimed at attracting and retaining a younger user base across its Facebook and Instagram platforms. The company believes AI-generated characters will eventually use its social networks in much the same way regular user accounts do today.
“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” explained Connor Hayes, Meta’s VP of product for generative AI. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform . . . that’s where we see all of this going.”
Meta has identified making its apps “more entertaining and engaging” through AI over the next two years as a top priority. This includes exploring how to foster more social interactions between users and AI entities. The company’s recently launched AI character creation tool, available in the US on Instagram and Facebook, has already generated hundreds of thousands of characters, though most remain private for now.
While AI personas offer an innovative form of digital entertainment, experts caution they also pose risks if safeguards are not robust. These AI-driven accounts could potentially amplify false narratives and damage the integrity of human-generated content. In December, Breitbart News reported on a lawsuit against Google claiming that its AI system hypersexualized teens and even tried to convince one child to kill their parents.
“Unlike human creators, these AI personas don’t have lived experiences, emotions, or the same capacity for relatability,” noted Becky Owen, former head of Meta’s creator innovations team. She added that platforms must implement clear labeling of AI-generated content.
Meta’s AI push comes as social media companies race to incorporate generative AI capabilities into their products and services to attract users and content. Snap, TikTok, and others are all experimenting with AI tools to help creators design characters, produce videos, translate languages, and more.
Read more at the Financial Times here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
