Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram • Hacker News Board

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#71

Post by parpfish » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 2:25 PM UTC

0xEF wrote: post #57

prinny_ wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'm not trying to be combative, but that still seems like a very weak reason. And it's one that I used to use, not just with FB, but Twitter, IG and LinkedIn. They all held the same promise and failed to deliver it. The idea that we need to be constantly networking is overblown, to say the least. When you step back and have an honest conversation with yourself about how much having access to these people you occasion…

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 relationships.

And for all those distant connections that you follow on FB but don’t want to talk to… you can ask your real friends “hey, have you anything about so-and-so?”

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#72

Post by scrollaway » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 2:26 PM UTC

_Algernon_ wrote: post #37

alex1138 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but replace "they" with "Zuckerberg" and "platforms" with "Facebook"

It applies to much more than facebook though. For example, Tiktok, Youtube, Reddit, Instagram. Not sure why you want to single out Facebook.

Plenty of trash there of course but YouTube also has very good quality content (if you know where to look for, both as a user and as an advertiser).

This in turn is why there is so much more money into YouTube than other social media: because there is also highly qualitative content and thus viewers there. YouTube gets insane amounts more money and attention from the industry because of this.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#73

Post by wslh » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 2:26 PM UTC

I think the problem, in general, is that search (and find!) becomes impossible with layers of copycat and automated content generation. It seems we returned to a pre-Internet era to promote our work.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#74

Post by bluGill » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 2:29 PM UTC

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.

If you just need someone to talk to AI might be good. There are a lot of lonely people out there that need someone to talk to and don't know how to do it. (particularly people in nursing homes who thus cannot get out and meet real people)

However I want Facebook as a way to remain connected to be distant friends not talk with people. I want to see my friends kids, their cats, whatever else they do that they are proud of. I know them personally even if I only see them at a class reunion every 10 years or something. I don't want to see cute cats (unless it is your cat), I don't want to see "joke of the day" - if I want that I'll find one of the many joke of the day places that cater to my sense of humor. I get plenty of politics elsewhere (unless they are running for office or assisting a campaign - share is not assisting a campaign). If I care about professional sports I can see it myself - let me know how your (or your kid's) games go since I won't find out about that.

I wish there was a way to make Facebook that latter - it sortof fills that role. However Facebook hates it because I catch up after 5-10 minutes of scrolling every day (usually the lower end of that list, but with the holidays the latter these last few weeks) and then close.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#75

Post by altruios » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 2:29 PM UTC

The way to fix facebook is to get off of facebook. Time for the next thing already!

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#76

Post by bluGill » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 2:30 PM UTC

altruios wrote: post #75

The way to fix facebook is to get off of facebook. Time for the next thing already!

What is that? Facebook fills a niche that nothing else tries to. Facebook also does lots of other things that others do better, but they have a niche in sharing the semi private lives of friends with each other that nothing else does.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#77

Post by InkCanon » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 2:33 PM UTC

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.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#78

Post by bluGill » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 2:33 PM UTC

0xEF wrote: post #45

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…

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?

SMS and (to a lesser extend) email are not ways to communicate with distance friends. Someone I went to school with 30 years ago and haven't seen since isn't going to call me about their new grandkid, Facebook works well to share these types of pictures. SMS and email take too much effort, Facebook is much lower friction to share that and thus I find out, while if they uses SMS or email I wouldn't be on the list as they would give up before they got to my name in their contacts.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#79

Post by bluGill » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 2:34 PM UTC

nothercastle wrote: post #65

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?

Marketplace… somehow they took over the marketplace for used stuff and killed cl. OfferUp was always crap so it doesn’t count.

Craigslist is still there. They only way to keep it around is make sure you use it.

Re: Meta Wants More AI Bots on Facebook and Instagram

#80

Post by downsplat » Thu, Jan 02, 2025, 2:34 PM UTC

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.

Don't people use whatsapp in your corner of the world? Over here in Europe all of that happens over whatsapp, which is still a Meta property at the end of the day, but one that hasn't been enshittified with off-network crap or algorithmic feeds... so far!