Meta has flooded its social media platforms with artificial intelligence. Soon enough, Meta AI
will be everywhere: In your Facebook news feed, Instagram search bar, and even your conversations with friends on Messenger. The company’s Llama 3 large language model is also perhaps the most powerful open-source model on the market (though its
openness is an ongoing debate). Meta is flexing its muscle and betting that AI ubiquity will actually improve user experience. So far, at least, that looks like a misguided bet.
The Meta AI experience has so far been a spam-filled one. Nowhere is that clearer than on Instagram where the search function, once a place to look up a friend’s account, now exists seemingly to usher users into conversation with a chatbot. “Ask Meta AI anything” it now reads in my search bar. Um, no. I just want to look up my dog’s daycare to see if they posted any pictures of her.
This new Instagram header also features a side-scrolling list of prompts for interacting with the AI: “Imagine rooftop gardens,” “advice for the modern stoic,” “anime reels.” Frankly, it’s bizarre that the most powerful social media advertising company in the world has so little information about me after a decade-and-a-half of use that it cannot even give me personalized suggestions about how I might use this dang thing. I have no rooftop, and if they think I’m interested in stoicism or anime, they’re beyond help.
