In a recent call with investors, Mark Zuckerberg made it clear: The AI-generated content will continue until morale improves.
During the earnings call, which focused a lot on AI, Zuckerberg talked about plans to introduce new feeds on Facebook and other Meta apps that will feature AI-generated content. He believes this will enhance users’ experiences.
He mentioned, “I think we’re going to add a whole new category of content, which is AI generated or AI summarized content,” and he’s excited about it for Facebook, Instagram, and possibly Threads in the future.
Zuckerberg explained that this is part of evolving how feeds work on Meta’s platforms. He noted that over time, content on Facebook has shifted from being mostly from friends to including a lot of creator content, which is often recommended by algorithms instead of coming from people you know. He said, “If you look at the big trends in Feeds… we went into this era where we added in creator content.”
This shift means social media is becoming less about connecting with friends and more about AI-generated content. Both Facebook and Instagram have seen a rise in AI spam and AI influencers, as well as people reposting content from other networks.
Meta has reported that this change has led to an 8% increase in time spent on Facebook and a 6% increase on Instagram, but it’s coming at the cost of real human connections.
In the call, Zuckerberg and Meta’s CFO, Susan Li, also mentioned how the company has used AI to improve its advertising system. They noted that over 1 million businesses are now using generative AI to create more than 15 million ads each month on Meta platforms. Li stated, “The Gen AI tools that we have built… are going to help businesses make ads significantly more customized at scale.”
Like many other companies diving into AI, Meta trains its models using content available online, crawling the web for various purposes.