Meta Is Adding More AI Slop to Your Feeds

I am extremely concerned about the prevalence of AI content on our social media feeds. Now that almost anyone can generate hyperrealistic videos with a simple text prompt, I fear that misinformation will grow exponentially, distorting worldviews faster than algorithms have been able to do so far. So you can imagine what I think of Meta’s plans to add a “huge body” of AI content to its feeds. Good luck to everyone.

This comes straight from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself. During a Meta Platforms, Inc. earnings conference call on Wednesday, Zuckerberg confirmed the company’s plans to add this massive body of self-proclaimed content, thanks to the ease with which AI makes it possible to create and “remix” content. People will create AI content, the platform’s recommendation systems will serve that content to people, who can then slightly edit that content and send it back into the metaverse. As this feedback loop continues, feeds will begin to fill with more and more AI content. It’s good for Meta and everyone who likes to watch videos that aren’t real. For those of us who are a little tired of this content, or worried that we won’t be able to spot it during a long scrolling session, this is just bad news.

While much (if not most) of this AI content likely comes from outside sources, like OpenAI’s Sora, some of it may come from Meta itself. The company recently rolled out “Vibes,” its own short-form AI video generator, as part of the existing Meta AI app. Users can create videos directly in Vibes or remix existing videos. I’d bet that some Vibes content is going to cross your Meta feed in the near future, if it hasn’t already.

Zuckerberg took the time to highlight how Meta’s AI recommendation systems across all of its core products (Facebook, Instagram and Threads) provide “higher quality and more relevant content” to users, especially when it comes to video. Apparently, the time we spent watching Instagram videos increased by over 30% compared to last year. (Fun fact: Reels earn over $50 billion according to the earnings call.) This environment seems perfect for fostering a new wave of AI among Meta’s huge audience.

Look, I really laughed at some of the AI ​​memes that came my way. But to suggest that flooding feeds with realistic AI videos without any regulation or foresight is a good idea is laughable in itself. If you use Meta products, be careful: you may not be able to believe that what you are looking at is actually real for much longer, if at all.