If AI agents are now doing things that humans used to do, such as coding and medicine, it’s only natural they’ll end up on social networks too.
Meta is planning to introduce “AI generated users” to its platforms Facebook and Instagram. These AI users will have bios, and interact with other users like human users. Meta is planning to introduce a range of AI products, including one that helps users create AI characters. Meta says that the introduction and deployment of these AI users will be a “priority” for the company in the coming years.
“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” said Connor Hayes, vice-president of product for generative AI at Meta. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform . . . that’s where we see all of this going,” he added.
In July, Meta had released an AI character creator tool in the US, which was used by hundreds and thousands of users to create their AI characters. Most users have chosen to keep these characters private so far, but these characters could be made accessible to everyone going forward. Meta has also introduced a tool for users to create AI assistants that can respond to questions from their followers, which over time could iterate into becoming full-fledged AI users.
Most industries have been looking to incorporate AI into their workflows, and it appears that social media platforms are no different. For Meta, AI users could come in handy in several ways. For starters, Meta’s products already reach most of humanity which has access to an internet connection, so they have literally run out of new human beings who can use their products. Introducing AI users could help Meta to continue growing its platforms. Also, having AI users could bring up human usage for some of Meta’s platforms — Facebook, in particular, is seeing declining usage among younger cohorts, and AI could be a new way to get users engaged once again. And with the proliferation of cheap AI agents, it’s possible that human users begin using AI to run their social media profiles, either through creating content or videos, or responding to messages — Meta could be looking to preempt this change by introducing AI users of its own which will have these capabilities built-in.
But there could be downsides of having AI users on social media platforms too. Having too many of these users on platforms could make the platform feel inauthentic and alienating for human users. Also, Meta’s biggest edge was its social graph and having real humans on its platform — having AI users, which could be replicable by other platforms through technology, could chip away at some of that advantage. But AI will likely anyway permeate all aspects of human life in the coming years, and Meta seems to be staying a step ahead of the incoming change by directly introducing some AI users of its own.