Meta’s AI bots are antithetical to the value of social media

With all the hype around AI and the undeniable potential of various applications, it seems like social apps are reaching for truly valuable use cases.

Or maybe I just don't see it yet, but for me, AI bots that respond in celebrity style or with the voice of celebrities really aren't the right fit, according to Meta's latest update.

Meta's first experiment with Celebrity style AI chatbots in text form was not received by users, which has recently led to this Shutdown this project.

Because it's not that interesting, is it? A chatbot that gives you the impression that you're talking to a celebrity isn't particularly engaging if you know that the other end of the discussion isn't actually that celebrity, or even a human being at all. You just talk to the matrix and the code base calculates your answers and then returns them.

This also applies to bots with celebrity voices, because whether they dress up as Billie Eilish or just give answers linked to a generic profile picture, the answers will always be the same. Sure, it'll be fun among your friends to hear John Cena answer random questions, but that novelty will wear off pretty quickly. And again you just giggle to yourself. Or maybe try to convince yourself that you're actually friends with Kristen Bell with her robotic voice ringing in your ears.

Nor is it social, at least not in the sense in which we generally understand that term. Social generally refers to the human connection on which the entire concept of social media is based.

These offers are not social, on the contrary, they invite you not to come into contact with anyone else.

And while you may be able to form some kind of relationship with an AI system (and some people have already done so), this also seems potentially unhealthy and not something we should build on, at least until we know the possible dangers of it.

But that's not even the limit of Meta's AI bot projects.

In his Connect keynote yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also previewed the next stage of the company's AI character platform, which will eventually allow creators to create AI versions of themselves in video form.

So you can video chat with your favorite star and they can answer any question you ask them.

Cool, right?

However, it's not really social here because you're not engaging with other people, and it's nothing at all. It's just a video game with real characters who increasingly look and sound like people you know.

And that's not the traditional appeal of social media.

One of the main benefits of social media is that it allows you to connect with people from all walks of life, and connecting with celebrities has played a big role in this. Before social media, your chances of ever getting in touch with your favorite celebrities were slim to none, but now you can send them a post or DM and the chance of them actually acknowledging you is a little higher.

This was a valuable driver for fan engagement and building an audience, but soon you won't know if it was actually them or an AI bot. Which could actually undermine the whole experience.

However, human-like bots of this type have become popular in one format: live shopping streams in China.

The moderators in these examples are all AI-generated bots that allow brands to sell their products 24/7 via live streams on Douyin (the local version of TikTok).

As reported by MIT Technology Review:

“Since 2022, a bevy of Chinese startups and major tech companies have been offering the service of creating deepfake avatars for e-commerce livestreaming. With just a few minutes of sample video and a cost of $1,000, brands can clone a human streamer so they can work 24/7.”

The company only provides the script and product details and the virtual streamer sells things on its behalf. More advanced versions can even search the comments for specific answers and interact with viewers, while also being able to change the approach depending on how many viewers they have at any given time.

So there is some form of demand for such digital doppelgangers. But then again, live shopping hasn't taken off in Western markets, and it doesn't look like this will be the catalyst that pushes it to the next level.

Essentially, Meta is still throwing AI ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. But I just don't see that moving away from the “social” aspects of its products is a viable strategy for future use.

Encouraging more bots pretending to be humans seems like a path to a less engaging social media environment. But at the same time, Zuck himself recently stated that, in his opinion:

“Every part of our work will change in some way (through AI). (For example) feeds are from – you know, it was already content from friends, and now it's mostly content from creators. In the future, a large part of it will be AI-generated.”

Therefore, Meta believes that one way or another, more and more AI-generated content will make its way into our social feeds.

Is that a good thing? Will this lead to more engagement?

AI as a handy assistant that can help you find relevant answers is one thing, but AI as an engagement option? A virtual relationship?

This feels like something different.