- Meta is testing bringing more AI-generated content to some users’ Facebook and Instagram experiences.
- The expanded features will display AI-generated images in some users’ feeds.
- Only users who have boarded and added photos to Meta’s Imagine Yourself feature will see the content.
Meta is experimenting with serving more AI-generated images and content to Facebook and Instagram users.
The company will now show some users their Meta AI-generated images on their Facebook and Instagram feeds, it announced at its annual developer conference, Meta Connect, last week.
The push towards injecting AI content into people’s feeds will be an interesting test of people’s openness to seeing their likeness in posts they didn’t proactively create on the fly. It’s also an early look at how Meta can predict its future social media feeds by evolving as AI becomes more pervasive in everyday life.
The extension builds on the Imagine Me feature, which went into beta in July and allowed users to create AI-generated selfies in direct messages with Meta AI or in their feeds, stories and profile pictures.
An example of Meta’s AI posts that the company is testing on some users’ feeds. Meta
However, new AI content added to feeds may be “based on your interests or current trends,” the company announced. Others may display AI-generated images of the user.
“Images with your face in them can only be created for users who have accessed Meta’s Imagine Yourself feature, which includes adding photos to that feature, and have accepted the feature’s terms,” a Meta spokesperson told BI. “Content imagined for you by Meta AI is displayed just for you, and you have the option to share it with your friends and family.”
Users viewing images can opt out by tapping the three dots in the upper right corner of a post. Choosing “hide” will stop them from seeing similar posts in their feeds, and “never see this content again” will disable their AI suggested images in their feeds.
Social media consultant and industry analyst Matt Navarra told BI that it’s essential for Meta to “find a balance between AI-powered features and genuine user-generated content.”
“There’s a novelty factor and that in itself can drive engagement and maybe keep people on the feed and on the platform longer,” Navarra said of the feature expansion. “However, the long-term answer will depend a lot on the quality and relevance of AI-generated content, because if it’s just more AI on feeds, I’m not sure how, long-term, that’s going to keep people engaged without causing additional problems for Meta to deal with”.
“If it feels intrusive or repetitive, which doesn’t match their interests, then users will probably become quite disengaged,” Navarra added. “There’s also the potential for users to feel a bit concerned about their likeness being used in AI-generated images or how personalized or personalized it becomes.”
Kevin Roose, co-host of The New York Times’ Hard Fork podcast, called the new feature “the scariest thing I can imagine doing” on a recent episode.
“Imagine you’re talking about fishing with your friend, and all of a sudden, because you clicked on some fishing stuff, you’re just scrolling through your Instagram feed and you see a picture of yourself in a fishing outfit going fishing,” Roose said. on the podcast.
“Like you’re going to throw your phone into the nearest body of water and never get in again,” he predicted.