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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

#21

Post by friend_Fernando »

Animats wrote: post #17
friend_Fernando wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but they do so selectively for what's against their interest. The net, filtered result is what's in their interest. That leaves "mutual assured dialogue destruction" as the only option, IMO.

> Yes, but they do so selectively for what's against their interest. Generating division is sufficient. There were Russian attempts to hack both campaigns in the last US election.[1] [1] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-sancti...

They're usually not filtering pro-left or pro-right. They're filtering pro-Russian-faction within the left and right. This usually means extremists that used to have no hope of winning in the pre-Internet days.

These factions are more likely to be beholden to their "troll benefactors" afterwards. But even if they turn out to be ungrateful, the extremism itself is worth pursuing. As you said, confusion and division are useful in their own right.

Add other rogue countries to the mix, and you end up with a nasty filter. We should turn it into white noise, or at least drop its SNR.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#22

Post by friend_Fernando »

BeetleB wrote: post #19
friend_Fernando wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but they do so selectively for what's against their interest. The net, filtered result is what's in their interest. That leaves "mutual assured dialogue destruction" as the only option, IMO.

> Yes, but they do so selectively for what's against their interest. The net, filtered result is what's in their interest. Not really. You can go and see the ads Russia placed on Facebook in the 2016 election. They had pro-life and pro-choice ads. They had pro-LGBTQ and anti-LGBTQ ads. They had pro-guns and anti-guns ads.

I don't think we disagree here, unless you saw some pro-Ukraine 2024 ads. It's not about left and right. To demagogues, ideologies are just tools of the trade.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#23

Post by throwup238 »

simonw wrote: post #16

Back in April Meta were experimenting with bots that replied to forum posts that hadn't had any traction yet: https://x.com/korolova/status/1780450925028548821 Their "Meta AI" bot replied to a parent asking for advice on school programs and said: > I have a child who is also 2e and has been part of the NYC G&T program. We've had a positive experience with the citywide program, specifically with the program at The And…

That sounds like it’s talking about the Meta executive in charge of privacy and consumer protection. The AI has developed a parasocial parental relationship with its own executives.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#24

Post by darth_avocado »

alex1138 wrote: post #11

Hey here's a novel idea Have social media websites be reverse chronological posts by friends/pages you follow instead of what AI thinks you're interested in (and yet somehow not explicitly following, yet you get it in your feed anyway)

But think about the poor shareholders

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#25

Post by throwaway48476 »

Animats wrote: post #13
friend_Fernando wrote: post #10

I think we actually need more bots discussing politics online. Specifically, we need echo chambers to be replaced by cacophony chambers. The only way to salvage democracy is to bring it back offline. Online, it was undermined by troll farms pulling the strings in favor of certain shady factions. It's time for the good guys to get their hands dirty and break the spell. Trolls cannot be silenced, but they can be offset…

> Specifically, we need echo chambers to be replaced by cacophony chambers. That's the objective of modern Russian propaganda. The goal is not to be believed. It is to create confusion and reap inaction.

That's the objective of propaganda within russia. For external audiences the objective is to sow chaos.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#27

Post by throwaway48476 »

friend_Fernando wrote: post #22
BeetleB wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, but they do so selectively for what's against their interest. The net, filtered result is what's in their interest. Not really. You can go and see the ads Russia placed on Facebook in the 2016 election. They had pro-life and pro-choice ads. They had pro-LGBTQ and anti-LGBTQ ads. They had pro-guns and anti-guns ads.

I don't think we disagree here, unless you saw some pro-Ukraine 2024 ads. It's not about left and right. To demagogues, ideologies are just tools of the trade.

In the communist era russian propaganda had a definite ideological position. It was also far more effective. Much of the 60s era progressive politics was a result of russian influence and the west was full of communists before the tankies split off.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#28

Post by wincy »

alex1138 wrote: post #11

Hey here's a novel idea Have social media websites be reverse chronological posts by friends/pages you follow instead of what AI thinks you're interested in (and yet somehow not explicitly following, yet you get it in your feed anyway)

I’ve developed this tic where anytime I’m on Facebook I aggressively block all the non sponsored suggested content in my timeline. I’ve blocked literally thousands of pages at this point. So the recommendations have gotten really weird, last week it thought maybe I was gay, then I started recommending Chinese state sponsored pages, now it’s recommending all 50 National Geographic pages. It’s always pages over a million “likes” whatever that means. I'm curious what’ll happen if I manage to block all of them.

Honestly probably something lame where the recommendations just get weirder and weirder (which I guess is happening now)

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#29

Post by bergen »

throwaway48476 wrote: post #25
Animats wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Specifically, we need echo chambers to be replaced by cacophony chambers. That's the objective of modern Russian propaganda. The goal is not to be believed. It is to create confusion and reap inaction.

That's the objective of propaganda within russia. For external audiences the objective is to sow chaos.

cacophony = chaos, so a lot of mixed opinions that don't really make sense would achieve just that. I would not expect thought out and stringent discussion from throwing a bunch of bots at every discussion

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#30

Post by hapticmonkey »

alex1138 wrote: post #11

Hey here's a novel idea Have social media websites be reverse chronological posts by friends/pages you follow instead of what AI thinks you're interested in (and yet somehow not explicitly following, yet you get it in your feed anyway)

You can access those simpler chronological feeds in Facebook under More > Feeds. They still insert sponsored posts in that feed, but you can block them with browser extensions.

The annoying part is that if you load the feed url from a bookmark, at least on mobile, it reloads to the home page anyway. So you need to navigate to it manually each time. Never used to be this way. I guess they’ll remove the “feeds” feature soon enough anyway.

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