The Great Generative AI Debate: Is It Fitting For Social Media?

With artificial intelligence (AI) evolving ever more sophisticated ways of interacting with us in the digital realm, one question is particularly poignant: does generative AI have an appropriate place in our social media experience? There is no clear-cut answer to this question, but it is an important one as we explore the challenges and opportunities of generative AI use in social media.

Understanding the Generative AI Surge in Social Media

It is hard to believe now given the deluge of generative AI on social media in recent years, from Meta AI and Snapchat’s My AI to GPT-3 and others. As AI integration becomes commonplace in everyday digital frivolities, the need for such tech, and the desire for, and likelihood of, its success, become crucial features of our daily lives. Is generative AI about to revolutionise social engagement – or is it about to overcomplicate a space where simplicity is a point of pleasure?

OPEN Generative AI: The Quest for Relevance on Social Platforms

Although a lot of noise has been made about the potential uses of generative AI, I’m skeptical about its value for most people on social media. For a lot of people, the personal and ‘real’ nature of our usage of social media means that generative models have little value for us. Virtual assistants that pass your job interview, or that paint pictures, are valuable technical demos, but they don’t seem useful for the kinds of uses we want from social media. In a sense, generative AI on social media seems like an example of bad product-market fit; there might be a lot of buzz, but the technology has little relevance to user demands.

The Double-Edged Sword of Generative AI

1. The Authenticity Dilemma

One of the core promises of social media is that it lets people express themselves. But with generative AI’s arrival in this area comes the threat of undermining authenticity – allowing the possibility of engagement farming and already-inflated notions of fantasy to escalate further.

2. The Privacy Conundrum

Integrating generative AI into social media brings us another step closer to the kinds of privacy abuses that have been lamented for years now – in the wake of scandals such as Cambridge Analytica’s notorious involvement in targeting ads for Donald Trump’s election campaign, with data harvested from Facebook.

3. The Misinformation Menace

The so-called ‘bear market’ days are not over. On a similar note, we all know how much of a battle social media is for misinformation – generative AI only stands to make this worse, as it might turn out it can find good text and imagery to support such stories and make them seem completely convincing and true when they are not.

Alternatives and Preferences: OPEN Beyond Generative AI on Social Media

This specialisation isn’t lost on users, with some noting that general-purpose GPT-like systems provide a polished experience – outside of the social-media ecosystem. Between these observations, one can draw the conclusion that generative AI certainly has a place in the world; it just might not be in the social-media sandbox.

Navigating the Generative AI Landscape on Social Media

For those who are interested or alarmed by the presence of generative AI on Meta, you can mute or restrict these AI features. It is therefore necessary to strike a balance, so that our users can determine their own level of interaction with generative AI.

The Future of Generative AI in Social Media: A Path FORWARD

With the evolution of generative AI, this is more likely to become an emergent application feature for social media in the future. How this evolves will depend on what the main social platforms do with it, and whether they are able to deploy the technology in ways that are transformative but do not compromise user experience, privacy, human authenticity and social human connection.

Unwrapping the OPEN AI Enigma

The word ‘open’ crops up frequently in discussions of generative AI – for instance, in reference to the fact that many AI tools are open-source, making it easier to see how AI systems are developed, and facilitating multiple creative avenues of development and adaptation. This can lead to better outcomes for generative AI too: a judicious application of generative AI could be a driving force for improving our social media feeds, not for undermining them.

Overall, although generative AI is likely to bring powerful applications across many professional contexts, the insertion of generative AI tools on social media should be approached with clarity and intention. Innovation on social platforms must remain rooted in the fundamental values of social media apps; otherwise, we risk losing critical aspects of what makes social media, well, social. Where we are going on the generative AI front with respect to social media – an open technological future – depends on the decisions we collectively make.