Summary
- Meta hopes to drive engagement on its platforms with AI characters.
- AI characters will have profile pictures and bios just like real accounts do, and be able to share content “powered by AI.”
- There are concerns that without proper safeguards, AI characters could spread misinformation.
The new year has only just arrived, and already, there is talk of what AI technology will do this year. 2024 was dominated by advancements in AI, whether it be on your phone with Apple Intelligence and Google Gemini or by using OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Meta has been working on developing its AI technology to populate Instagram and Facebook with AI-generated characters to help drive engagement.
Connor Hayes, vice president of product for generative AI at Meta, spoke about Meta’s plans in an interview with the Financial Times. He said Meta expects these AI-generated characters to exist on the platform “the same way accounts do” (humans).
“They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform,” Hayes said. “That’s where we see all of this going.”
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AI characters are all about engagement
Meta hopes AI characters will make its app ‘more entertaining and engaging’
Usually, when you go to a social media platform, you go to a place where you can interact with friends, family, and real people worldwide. So, adding AI characters to the mix may seem a bit perplexing. However, for Meta, its AI characters are all about driving more engagement on its already popular platforms.
Hayes said over the next couple years that it is a “priority” for Meta to make its apps, like Instagram and Facebook, “more entertaining and engaging.” Meta has been testing a tool which lets users create an AI-generated character in the US since July. Most AI characters generated by users have been kept private so far, with testing for the feature expanding in the future (via Financial Times).
AI-generated characters will raise several eyebrows, and the type of content they will put out will be under heavy scrutiny. “Without robust safeguards, platforms risk amplifying false narratives through these AI-driven accounts,” said Becky Owen, former head of Meta’s creator innovation team. Meta’s rules state that AI-generated content should be labeled on its platforms. Still, a label might not be enough to ease concerns about the potential for low-quality content or misinformation AI characters could put out. Meta has a lot of work to do to ensure these AI characters hit the mark.
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