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Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

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Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#151

Post by Kiro »

prinny_ wrote: post #51
0xEF wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you still using it? I dropped FB about 12 years ago, have not looked back since. I ask people this question who still use FB and complain about terrible it is. They answer with some generic "to stay in touch with such and such" which is easier and less invasive to do with SMS or email. So, why are you still using it?

The answer is network effect and friction . It is hard to communicate to everyone on your friends list that moving forward they can reach you via email or text only. It’s going to work with close friends and family but other people that want to reach out will not be able to find you. And there are always cases when you want to connect (or be easy to find) with someone who is not a close acquaintance.

I don't understand why people are downvoting you when you're just explaining the reason why. Judging by the sentiment and aggressive downvoting in this thread one would think using anything else than email and text is completely abnormal. Fwiw I don't know a single person using email outside of work and the only texts people get are appointment reminders.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#153

Post by reaperducer »

Kiro wrote: post #113
reaperducer wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is SMS easier? I can't easily access it on the desktop or the browser. As someone in the Apple ecosystem, I find SMS much easier when using it from Apple's desktop Messages program. It's not ideal that not everyone has that opportunity, but don't make the mistake of thinking that your experience is the only experience. It's also a bit strange, because back when I was making the transition from Wintel to Macintosh…

> but don't make the mistake of thinking that your experience is the only experience I'm literally responding to someone claiming it's easier across the board. I'm not the one making that mistake. > Do they no longer exist? That sounds really complicated compared to just opening a web page. Besides, my computer doesn't even have a Bluetooth connection.

That sounds really complicated compared to just opening a web page.

It's actually less complicated than using a web page because you just start the SMS/iMessage program, and it's there ready to go. With a browser you have to start the browser and then tell it to go to Facebook. Then open the messaging portion of Facebook. Three times a many steps.

Besides, my computer doesn't even have a Bluetooth connection.

That's interesting to me. I didn't think any computer made in the last 20 years didn't have Bluetooth. What kind is it?

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#154

Post by tokioyoyo »

seydor wrote: post #66

Socialization is about conspecifics. AI may augment the process for humans, but you can't expect people at large to engage with nonhumans. I mean, people do talk to their pets, but they don't consider that socializing.

A few months ago, the same argument popped up about AI videos. But the long game strategy is making it “normal” for the kids and youth growing up, so they would consider it as socializing. It’ll be up to the adults to fight against it.

If we grew up with AI YouTube, we wouldn’t bat an eye on more AI videos, or socialization and etc., as we would consider that as just… business as usual.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#155

Post by dagmx »

InkCanon wrote: post #77
muglug wrote: post #70

Instagram just asked if I wanted to chat with a Hawk Tuah AI bot. To me that’s the clearest possible evidence that the product people over there have basically given up. It reminds me of when Facebook went all-in on Live Video in 2016 — a product direction that pretty obviously came from the top.

It's a clear sign Meta leadership has clearly lost the plot, giving in to hype instead of any vision.

Meta leadership have rarely had a vision beyond “how do we capture the success others are having in this space”. I suppose that’s a vision in and of itself but not a very inspired one.

This is the case for most of their successful products:

- Facebook itself started this way for Zuck

- Instagram and WhatsApp were purchases to corner that market against incumbents, as is Thread

- Oculus was a purchase to try and get their own app ecosystem after their phone project failed.

They have brilliant engineers and put out interesting stuff, but I don’t think there’s a top down vision.

Take oculus, their vision has been scattershot and even Boz says they basically make tons of different product directions and then decide what goes to market. Which sure, can work, but that also implies they don’t have a North Star to shoot for. Quest Pro was a failure and they released three types of Oculus lines close to each other (Rift, Go, Quest) before realizing the Quest was the real success path.

Similarly with AI, their approach has been to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Like their celebrity AI chatbots ( https://youtu.be/sfdzkHawZLo?si=oCKAbFHjiOlFRKKh ) or sticking GenAI in every product without a specific user story.

Again, great engineering work in all of their pursuits. But if you analyze any given product venture, it’s always throwing ideas at the wall and hoping one catches.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#156

Post by rchaud »

ChrisLTD wrote: post #138

It seems like this should open up an opportunity for some enterprising people to make a Facebook and Instagram competitor that isn't filled with AI bots.

You are describing a group chat. There is no reason to build a competitor to Insta or FB unless you too have designs to fill it with ads as soon as it is viable to do so.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#157

Post by parpfish »

bluGill wrote: post #82
parpfish wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People got used to a passive “push” model for staying in touch that they forget the norm used to be “pull”. Now you just passively absorb updates from people to stay factually informed but don’t directly engage with one another. With email/sms, you can just ask somebody “hey what’s up?” And get their big updates. It’s more active and requires some more investment but that’s a good thing for making stronger relationsh…

Those models don't work for distant friends. I should call my mom more often. However nobody would call someone they were distant friends with 20 years ago to talk about their kids sports game - but 10 seconds to see those pictures on Facebook is still appreciated. When that is what Facebook does it is valuable.

what's the point in seeing photos of a kids sports game if you are so uninterested in maintaining a relationship that you'd never consider chatting with the person? at that point, it may as well be a parasocial relationship with a celebrity where you look at photos of their life and say "wow, i'm so glad i've connected with them".

there's a difference between being informed about the goings-on in somebody's life (which social media browsing/posting can help with) and actually having relationships with people.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#158

Post by [deleted] »

nox101 wrote: post #135
k1kingy wrote: post #41

My FB timeline is already a complete mess with most irrelevant garbage as it stands. Not exactly sure what adding additional 'noise' is going to achieve outside of boosting numbers (which I guess is what they want). A current snapshot my feed: - Group post (from one I follow) - Ad - Post (from company I don't follow) - Group post (from Group I don't follow) - Group post (from one I follow) - Ad - Group post (from Gro…

My feed in the mobile app is - post from friend - post from friend - post from friend - people you might know - post from friend - post from friend - post from friend - post from friend - post from friend - post from frien - loops - post from friend - post from friend - post from friend - post from a non-friend about a friend - post from friend - post from friend - post from friend - post from friend - post from frie…

[deleted]

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#159

Post by the__alchemist »

k1kingy wrote: post #41

My FB timeline is already a complete mess with most irrelevant garbage as it stands. Not exactly sure what adding additional 'noise' is going to achieve outside of boosting numbers (which I guess is what they want). A current snapshot my feed: - Group post (from one I follow) - Ad - Post (from company I don't follow) - Group post (from Group I don't follow) - Group post (from one I follow) - Ad - Group post (from Gro…

Read this post to yourself aloud.

Why are you still checking Facebook? Keep the messenger app on your phone if people you know still use it.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#160

Post by tokioyoyo »

openrisk wrote: post #40

We need a tech hype that is not terminally tainted as an anti-human abomination. Is it too much to ask for? Surely those gazillions of GPUs can be deployed to do something actually useful ? Are we beyond redemption?

What you consider “useful” is not useful for others, and vice versa. For some 19 year olds, curating their IG feeds and making the smoothest transition on TikTok to go viral is actually important.

It sounds stupid, but we went through this entire debate back in early 2010s. FB/IG/TT/YT obviously won, and seems like that’s what majority of people prefer doing.

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