Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
FT editor Roula Khalaf has chosen her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Meta expects to leverage rapidly evolving technology to drive engagement with its 3 billion users, with artificial intelligence-generated characters filling its social media platforms in the coming years I’m betting it will be.
The Silicon Valley group has rolled out a range of AI products, including one that helps users create AI characters on Instagram and Facebook, as it battles with rival technology groups to attract and retain younger audiences. are.
“We expect these AIs to actually live on our platform over time, just like accounts,” said Connor Hayes, vice president of generative AI products at Meta. states.
“They’ll have bios and profile pictures, and they’ll be able to generate and share AI-powered content on the platform. . . . That’s where we see this all going.” he added.
Hayes said Meta’s “priorities” over the next two years are to make the app “more interesting and engaging,” including looking at ways to make interactions with AI more social. Said to be included.
He said hundreds of thousands of characters have already been created using the company’s AI character tool (which launched in the U.S. in July and plans to expand access in the future), but most users have so far He said he is keeping them private.
Meanwhile, the majority of creators are now using Meta’s AI tools to make real-world content look better, such as photo editing.
The move comes as social media companies race to release the latest generative AI technology into products as a way to attract new users and more content to their platforms.
In September, Snapchat rolled out a generative AI tool that allows so-called creators, people who earn money by posting content online, to design 3D characters for augmented reality experiences. The number of users viewing AI lenses is increasing by more than 50% every year.
TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, is piloting a suite of products called Symphony that will allow brands and creators to use AI in advertising. This includes text prompts, creating product videos with AI-generated avatars, and translating content into different languages.
Meta also introduced tools to create AI assistants that allow users to respond to questions from their followers. Next year, the company plans to release text-to-video software for creators, allowing them to see themselves in AI-generated videos.
Mark Zuckerberg, head of Meta, previously demonstrated the ability to make live video calls with creators’ AI avatars, where they can talk in their style. Creators can shape the system to avoid certain topics or choose which topics to promote.
Recommended
But experts have warned that AI-generated content poses risks, including the possibility that these characters could be “weaponized” to spread misinformation.
Becky Owen, global chief marketing and innovation officer at creative agency Billion Dollar Boy and former head of creator innovation team at Meta “There is a risk of amplifying false narratives through this.”
To address concerns, Meta’s rules state that AI-generated content must be clearly labeled on the platform.
Owen said that while AI characters could be a “creative new form of entertainment,” there was a risk that platforms would be flooded with low-quality material that undermined creators’ skills and undermined user trust.
“Unlike their human creators, these AI personas do not have the same lived experience, emotion, or ability to empathize,” she added.
