“Sociable” is the most recent commentary on essential social media developments and trends from industry expert Andrew Hutchinson of Social Media Today.
If you thought that 2024 was an enormous 12 months for social platforms pushing AI elements into their apps, you ain’t seen nothing yet, with Meta looking to bring much more AI to your feeds over the following 12 months.
How is it going to do this?
Well, other than injecting AI chatbots into every aspect that it will probably, Meta’s next plan is to deploy thousands and thousands of generative AI characters and have them pose as actual users on Facebook and Instagram.
According to Connor Hayes, Meta’s VP of product for gen AI, soon, there’ll be a complete range of latest AI profiles activated inside its apps.
As per Hayes (via The Financial Times):
“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, form of in the identical way that accounts do. They’ll have bios and profile pictures and have the opportunity to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform.”
Which just isn’t overly surprising.
In an interview back in August, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that:
“Every a part of what we do goes to get modified not directly [by AI]. [For example] feeds are going to go from – , it was already friend content, and now it’s largely creators. In the long run, lots of it goes to be AI generated.”
That seemed to suggest that Zuckerberg was anticipating that increasingly more people would eventually start using Meta’s gen AI tools to create images and posts, but shortly after this, Meta hired app developer Michael Sayman, who had just created Social.ai, an app that permits you to interact with thousands and thousands of AI bots, each with their very own personality and focus.
As such, the pathway seems pretty clear, with Meta looking to incorporate elements of Social.ai into its core social experiences, thereby showcasing the evolving capability of its AI models, while also providing latest ways to engage inside its apps.
Which, frankly, sounds horrible, and the response online has been strongly against the mixing of more bots in social apps.
But nonetheless, most social media users instinctively reject change, and the true query then is: “Will it work?”
If Meta does unleash thousands and thousands of AI profiles on Facebook and IG, each with their very own custom personality, focused on a certain topic and/or interest area, could that actually boost app usage and engagement?
And the reply, whether you prefer it or not, might be yes.
Take, for instance, the recent backlash on Threads regarding the issue that users have had in growing their following within the app. On Bluesky, which enables users to default to the “Following” feed (as opposed to the algorithm-defined “For You” stream), many creators have claimed that it’s much easier to gain followers, and construct an audience of your individual, as opposed to Threads, where follower growth seems to plateau pretty fast.
Spooked by the sudden rise of Bluesky, Threads then sought to address this, by updating its algorithm to put more emphasis on content from profiles that you just follow within the feed.
But really, you’re never going to gain followers like you probably did on Twitter or Facebook prior to now, because modern social media algorithms are more focused on engagement, and showing you more content that’s similar to what you’re already engaging with. That approach, led by TikTok, has enabled the platforms to drive more time spent in-stream, and as such, they would like that you just depend on their advice algorithms and “For You” feeds, as opposed to curating your individual experience by following.
The final result, then, is that you just don’t actually need to follow anyone anymore, as you’ll be able to just depend on the system to show you more stuff that you just’ll like. Which, consequently, means that individuals don’t follow profiles at the identical rates that they once did.
As such, growing a following goes to be difficult, but at the identical time, creators are also attuned to this as a growth metric, and so they want to see that number go up.
And on condition that only a fraction of social media users ever post anything in any respect, Meta knows that it needs to keep these users pleased.
So what happens if Meta launches thousands and thousands of AI bots, and so they’re all guided to follow profiles related to their topics of focus?
Now, you’re gaining hundreds of followers a day, and Meta can unleash a heap more to keep those numbers rising. These bots may even have the opportunity to engage along with your updates, by asking questions, providing responses, and supplying you with notes of encouragement.
Sure, they’re bots, but do you actually think that users are going to care?
That’s the important thing query: Will the incontrovertible fact that that is artificial engagement tangibly reduce the dopamine boost that individuals get once they open the app and see that they’ve a heap of likes, comments, and latest followers, each time that they share an update?
I would really like to think that it might, but in point of fact, I think it won’t.
We’ve already seen people using “follow for follow” tactics to boost their numbers, and make themselves feel like they’re popular, regardless that the people following them don’t have any actual interest in what they post. We’ve seen people pay for bot followers as a way to inflate their perceived importance, we’ve seen people buy likes to get that hit of engagement and/or relevance.
People know that lots of the engagement on social media is fake already. So do you actually think that they’ll query it if these latest bots inflate their numbers in a brand new way?
My guess is that many, many users will just feel good that they’re getting attention, and that Meta’s AI bots will actually increase engagement because of this. Sure, it’s not real, “social” interaction as we might more commonly define it. But again, if the numbers go up, I think that many will welcome it.
There can be a practical value to having AI bots as a sounding board of sorts, providing alternative considerations to your updates. You could post: “What should I even have for dinner?” for instance, and get responses from an Italian chef bot, a French chef bot, a health food bot, a deals and coupons bot, etc. That could actually be helpful, and there’s a spread of how that these responses might actually also provide value too.
Of course, it might even have impacts for influencers, and people trying to pitch themselves for brand collabs. Brands will need to be much more discerning wherein “influencers” they work with, because if 70% of their following is actually AI bots, then they won’t be of much value in your promotions.
But with that consideration aside, and disclosure labeling in place to indicate AI bots (I think Meta will look to hide this where it will probably), I actually can see this being a winning strategy for the corporate.
It sounds bad, and the final thing we probably need is more bot accounts inside social apps. But in practical application, you’ll be able to imagine that many users will just be pleased to get that extra engagement, whether it’s artificial or not.
If the numbers go up, all other considerations, I think, will fade.
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