Remember a few years ago when Meta rebranded itself and launched the Metaverse? Back then, the company believed that devices like VR and AR headsets were the future. But now? It looks like they’re pivoting to AI, with its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, envisioning AI as the future of social media.
Mark Zuckerberg sees AI as the new social media
Social media has always been about connecting with people, but Mark Zuckerberg has a different vision for where things are heading. During Meta’s latest earnings call, the CEO laid out his plan for what he’s calling the third era of social media.
Speaking to analysts, Zuckerberg was quoted as saying, “Social media has gone through two eras so far. First was when all content was from friends, family, and accounts that you followed directly. The second was when we added all of the Creator content.”
While he did not explicitly call AI the third era, it certainly feels like that’s the direction he was taking. What this means is that instead of scrolling through vacation photos or influencer promotions, Zuckerberg envisions feeds filled with personalized AI-generated videos, images, and text tailored specifically to you.
If that already sounds iffy, Meta’s already put its plan into action. The company’s Vibes app has generated 20 billion AI images so far. But looking at the larger picture, the company wants to weave AI throughout Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. It wants to merge large language models with its recommendation systems.
As if it weren’t dangerous enough
The dangers of social media are well-documented, but what about AI? We already know that AI has weaknesses, such as hallucinations where it spouts off things that are completely made up or inaccurate. That in itself poses some form of danger. However, we’ve also seen how some users have gotten so caught up in AI that they actually took their own lives.
This is because AI tends to be very agreeable unless you explicitly tell it not to be. This leads to the reinforcement of certain thoughts and ideas, which could lead to users putting themselves in danger. We get what Zuckerberg is going for, and from a tech perspective, it’s pretty cool. However, maybe we should also take a step back and think this through carefully.
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