It’s been in development for a while, but today Meta released the first phase of its “AI Studio” platform, which lets Instagram creators build AI versions of themselves that can interact with fans via DMs.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement during an interview with YouTuber Kayne Sutter, in which he also discussed various elements of Meta’s broader AI plans.
Most of Zuckerberg’s comments are pretty vague and broad, with a few hinting at upcoming AI updates (improved translation, hologram-like projections of real people in VR).
But the main announcement is the start of live testing of AI Studio with select IG creators in the US.
Zuckerberg says AI Studio allows creators to build “AI agent” versions of themselves to interact with their community, and the process, built into Instagram, offers a range of prompts and tools to generate variations of these AI bots.
Zuckerberg said the main focus, or simple use case, will be answering factual queries, with more creative answers, or answers that replicate the creator’s style, coming with a harder element. Creators will be free to train the bot on different aspects of their social media presence, Zuckerberg said, which will allow it to generate a more lifelike replica of themselves.
But at the same time, Meta doesn’t want people to be fooled into thinking they’re interacting with a real human. Zuckerberg said these AI bots will be clearly flagged to ensure people know when they’re interacting with an AI bot, but that leaves the question: “Why?”
I mean, I get the basic use case of a creator getting a ton of questions and having limited time to personally respond — that’s a factual element, and the bot would be able to provide generic answers to basically generic questions, in the creator’s style — but expanding into other areas seems inherently deceptive and counter to the whole focus of a “social” media platform.
right?
Sutter posed the same question in his interview with Zuckerberg, noting that creators and their audiences would be worried about undermining real connection in the medium. Zuckerberg downplayed it somewhat in his response, but the reality is that there doesn’t seem to be any real value in having AI bots that simulate real people, especially within an app that values real connections.
This seems like a step away from the core use cases of social, towards a platform where bots interact with bots and real humans are replaced by automated interactions. Haven’t users been complaining about bots for years? Aren’t insincere interactions a constant issue?
I’m not sure, but it doesn’t seem like the right way to lean into the AI trend, but Meta, for some reason, seems convinced that robotic versions of celebrities and influencers would be a valuable addition.
Zuckerberg also noted that eventually, IG will be able to create UGC AI characters that can interact with people in different ways and styles.
Is there demand for this? Does it add value?
It’s unclear if Meta’s initial experiment with celebrity-inspired bots was truly successful, but they’re pushing it, which will likely lead to even more engagement for approved bots in streams.
