We have already noticed it but the numbers are increasing: the popular Meta social networks, Facebook And Instagramalready have numerous profiles that we can define as “non-human” but generated byartificial intelligence (IA). If this is now the present, in the near future the developers intend to make these profiles even more autonomous and capable of generating products as if they were any real influencer.
The objectives
First of all, Meta would like to attract a younger audience that often prefers competitors such as Tik Tok and Snapchat. “We expect these artificial intelligences to actually exist on our platforms in the same way where human accounts do“he told the Financial Times Dr. Connor Hayes, VP of Product for Generative AI at Meta. Meta’s new developments go in the direction of an online tool called AI Studio which was launched a few months ago to allow users to create their own chatbots. “You can clone yourself or create an artificial person online using text to video converter software, and creating an artificial presence has never been easier”.
“Artificial” accounts
This is the evolution: alongside the profiles that each of us can create with our own artificial alter ego, the same artificial intelligence could be able to independently create new accounts complete with biographies, profile images and generate content on the platforms, Facebook or Instagram whatever. Hayes has already explained that hundreds of thousands of characters have already been created but that most users have, for now, kept them private. Meta, among other things, has already introduced a tool created by artificial intelligence that can answer followers’ questions
How to recognize them
It often happens that it is difficult to recognize a “real”, human profile from others created by AI: to overcome this problem, the various accounts already specify what it is but the Meta developers have promised that the rules require that AI-generated content should be labeled clearly on all its platforms. The risks, however, are still very high because even with labels there is a growing concern about potential risks: deepfakes and artificial chatbots could also be a source of misinformation, relational deception, fraud.
What are the risks
According to experts at Emarketer, a market research company, if Meta platforms were invaded by AI bots, users might abandon them for other social media services.
Some experts, hypothesizing dark scenarios, even speak of the “death of the Internet” if “Internet activity and content, including social media accounts, are created and automated predominantly by artificial intelligence agents. Taking the scenario one step further, what happens when the interacting accounts also appear to be managed by AI agents?”