Meta wants AI characters to fill up Facebook and Instagram ‘kind of in the same way accounts do,’ but also had to delete a humiliating first run of its official bots | The “dead internet theory” is not true, yet, but it sure seems like some people really want to get us there as quickly as possible.
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/meta-wants-ai-characters-to-fill-up-facebook-and-instagram-kind-of-in-the-same-way-accounts-do-but-also-had-to-delete-a-humiliating-first-run-of-its-official-bots/
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Submission statement: The conspiratorial “[dead internet theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory)”—that most online activity is just a haze of self-perpetuating algorithmic noise—is not true, yet, but it sure seems like some people really want to get us there as quickly as possible. As reported by [404 Media](https://www.404media.co/metas-ai-profiles-are-indistinguishable-from-terrible-spam-that-took-over-facebook/), Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta has hastily deleted a swathe of experimental AI character accounts that were uncovered after a Meta executive indicated such content was “where we see all of this going.”
Speaking to the [Financial Times](https://www.ft.com/content/91183cbb-50f9-464a-9d2e-96063825bfcf) on December 27, Meta executive Connor Hayes stated, “We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms kind of in the same way that accounts do.” Hayes further added, “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform… that’s where we see all of this going.”
If that sounds absolutely abysmal to you, you’re not alone: Hayes’ comments drew ridicule and anger given the already dire state of AI-generated “slop” on Instagram and (especially) Facebook. More fuel was added to the backlash as users on Twitter and Bluesky began uncovering and sharing older AI-generated profiles from a 2023 test by Meta—for what it’s worth, these characters were not part of some new rollout in tandem with the Financial Times story.
Meta rightly catching heat for this but they’re just the first ones publicly over the parapet on this. Plenty of companies will be rolling out fake people over the next few months and years. There’s almost no reason for example why an influencer needs to be a real person at this point.
This really feels like Meta wanting to be able to say “Hey look! We did an AI too!”
Facebook became obvious AI garbage long ago. It lost all the feeling of “connection” with my friends. My wall has become 1 post from someone I personally know for every 5 or 6 that are ads and AI group suggestions.
It’s atrocious. I used to log in daily and engage, now I log in once a month at most. If engagement is the point, it lost me.
Why would marketing and companies want to pay anything to social media if a whole not of the engagement will be even more AI? What am I missing?
Why are they doing this. Why won’t they just answer that simple question.
You know where this tech belongs? Video games.
If I’m exploring an open world game, an AI with a directive and a ton of independence could be really fun.
But this crap? Yuck.