(2023-09-23) Hey Zuck Get Those Robots Out Of My Social Feeds

Hey Zuck, get those robots out of my social feeds. For a time there was a lot of excitement about an impending Metaverse, but the buzz is now barely audible. These days everyone is enchanted by all-knowing AI chatbots, which are making their claim to be not just the future of computers but the future of everything. What’s a paradigm chaser to do?

The answer came in Mark Zuckerberg’s bifurcated presentation at the Meta Connect event this week. Yes, he still believes in mixed reality. He started by formally announcing the Meta Quest 3, a $500 headset that is actually better than the $1,500 “Pro” helmet the company recently abandoned

the moment Zuckerberg unveiled his bold new AI strategy for the era of ChatGPT. The gist of it is to use Meta’s advanced large language models to create chatbots injected into it various social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger

The original point of Facebook, a mission that Zuckerberg has at no time repudiated even after his company’s name change, is connecting people. You know, humans.

VR in his view was all about hangouts, meetings, and getting you-are-there experiences from afar, largely anchored by Meta’s Horizon Worlds app.

Recently that messaging has shifted.

Zuckerberg’s AI presentation this week departed even further from his original mission. Meta is deep into the race to create super smart chatbots, and the big idea is to put them into social feeds.

Zuckerberg took special pride in a “fun” use of AI—a slate of about 30 chatbots modeled on celebrities including Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner, and Mr. Beast.

these are not celebrity stand-ins that pretend to be the real thing. That would be only vaguely unsatisfying. Instead, the Meta team assigned stereotyped personas—jock, fashionista, chef, and more—to the celebrities, who act out the roles in bot form via their voices and animated facial expressions.

The new Meta AI chatbot doesn’t pretend to be a person, but it too could undermine the original point of Facebook

Isn’t the warming feeling of chatter among friends dependent on the chatter … actually coming from your friends? In this case both the creator and the recipient are reduced to spectators as the AI struts its stuff. This is the opposite of social interaction.

When I bring up these concerns to Meta’s VP of generative AI, Ahmad Al-Dahle, post-keynote, he accuses me of having “a dystopian point of view.” Adding AI bots to the various feeds will spur human connection, he counters. “I think these AIs are entertaining and can help people learn new skills that help them better connect with others,” he says, “supercharging your own capabilities to build better EQ and connect with people in more meaningful ways.”

Social feeds are zero sum. Every time I get diverted by some chatbot interaction, whether an automated replica of a human or a bot doing the work of a search engine, that’s one less chance to see a post from a cousin and respond.