Meta plans to flood social media with AI-generated users and content

Meta Platforms Inc. plans to flood Facebook and other social media platforms with artificial intelligence-powered user profiles, one of its executives said.

Over the past year, Meta has been developing and promoting a variety of new AI tools on Facebook, Instagram, and other sites. The company is rolling out an AI chatbot in its Messenger app, launched an AI character creation tool in July, and has already created “hundreds of thousands of characters,” according to Connor Hayes, the company’s vice president of generative AI products. It is said to be used for creation.

The majority of these AI-created characters will remain private for now, but we expect the meta to spread across platforms over the next few years.

“We expect these AIs to actually live on our platforms over time, just like accounts,” Hayes said in an interview with the Financial Times today. spoke. “They’ll have a profile and a profile picture, and they’ll be able to generate and share AI-powered content on the platform. That’s where we see this whole thing happening.”

Hayes said investing in AI will continue to be a priority for Meta over the next two years to make its platform “more interesting and engaging” for users. On Facebook, users already have access to AI tools to edit photos and create AI assistants that can be used to respond to messages from fans.

The Financial Times article added that Meta also plans to launch a new text-to-video tool for content creators that will allow users to insert themselves into AI-generated videos.

A Meta spokesperson told Fox Business that the tool will allow people to create video characters that are “AI based on your interests.” These are designed to both entertain and provide support, so users can teach others how to cook, share fashion advice, tips on how to use cosmetics, and more. There is a possibility to create an AI character that can provide

What could go wrong?

Although Meta clearly labels all AI-generated content on its platform, critics say there are legitimate concerns about the proliferation of largely unmonitored AI users and AI-generated content on social media sites. He claims there is a reason.

Such concerns include the risk of political manipulation and flooding platforms with low-quality content, but there is also the potential for more serious damage. A mother recently filed a lawsuit against AI company Character Technologies Inc., claiming that one of the company’s chatbots encouraged her 14-year-old son to commit suicide.

“Without robust safeguards, platforms risk amplifying false narratives through these AI-driven accounts,” Becky Owen, former head of creator innovation at Meta, told the Financial Times.

Owen also warned of the risk that low-quality content could dilute a social media platform’s brand. “Unlike their human creators, these AI personas do not have the same lived experience, emotions, or ability to empathize,” she said.

Constellation Research Inc.’s Holger Müller told SiliconANGLE that while there are clear risks to using AI to attract users to a company’s social media platforms, there are positive benefits in terms of user retention. He said he thinks there may be.

“Meta wants to keep users on its Facebook and Instagram platforms, but is struggling to do so, so we are considering whether AI can help,” the analyst said. “The involvement of AI characters is still in its early stages and we may not get it right the first time, but it’s an idea that ultimately holds some promise.”

Despite the risks, Meta seems determined to press ahead with its plans to take over social media with AI, if only because it hopes to see a return on the billions of dollars it has invested in the technology to date.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in April that it could be years before the company sees any results.

“To date, the investments we’ve made to build these new scale experiences in our apps have been very good for us and for the investors who have supported us,” Zuckerberg said on the earnings call. “It’s a long-term investment and the early signs are very positive here as well.” together with the analyst. “Building cutting-edge AI will be a larger undertaking than any other experience we’ve added to the app, and will likely take several years.”

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