10 ms·

Meta Launches AI Studio in US

189 points by pizzathyme 2y ago

ukuina 2y ago
Is this any less authentic than having a social-media manager to write/answer on your behalf?
- 101008 2y ago
  If they don't make it clear and want to pass it as if you were talking to the celebrity themselves, then yes, it's less authentic.
  - Kiro 2y ago
    They don't reveal it either way so how is it less authentic?
- meiraleal 2y ago
  Not at all and it will have a huge impact in the social media job market.
leetharris 2y ago
This is a really big deal. I'm surprised to see a big company jumping into this space so quickly. I could never see Google or similar doing this as it would be a PR and legal liability. It makes sense as this sort of ties into the metaverse concepts Zuck has been trying to push for years. This will be the biggest experiment in AI companionship so far. Hopefully it all goes well. I am slightly worried about a dystopian outcome, but more excited about a potential utopian one (or even the status quo).
- Imagesegmetanto 2y ago
  [dead]
- jononor 2y ago
  Yeah, I would more have expected Meta to keep a close eye on all the startups doing this (character.ai etc), let them fumble and learn - then buy some of them out when commercial potential is a bit more ripe. It still seems a little bit early for this at Meta scale, but who knows...
- bossyTeacher 2y ago
  Meta doesn't have a track record of delivering products that have positive social impact and based on the llm hype, this won't be any different
ryandrake 2y ago
I think I had a seizure reading that. "AI" every 5 words, and I'm still not exactly sure what the product is. Best I can interpret is it's two separate products: One is a virtual person for "creators" to generate: it impersonates them, writes messages to fans on their behalf, and tricks their "audience" into believing it's the real thing, and the second is a virtual friend that you can create and then have a parasocial relationship with. [EDIT to remove unnecessary snipe at the end]
- oldpersonintx 2y ago
  [dead]
- barbazoo 2y ago
  Q: What’s that that tripod you’re using? A: It’s my mobile standing desk Is that really the kind of interaction anyone needs?
  - KrishnaAnaril 2y ago
    I've seen followers ask famous photographers about the camera they use. May be creators can use an AI bot to answer this kind of repetitive questions.
    - barbazoo 2y ago
      Except it didn’t even do that here but yeah, maybe.
  - Zambyte 2y ago
    That part is really weird to me. I saw a video from that person for the first time a few days ago. They did an unboxing of the Daylight Computer. I am waiting on my own order for the DC, so I found and watched it. They aren't even that big of a creator (sub 5k subs on YouTube) but now I am seeing them in a Facebook ad. Weird coincidence.
    - datadrivenangel 2y ago
shinycode 2y ago
Does people really want to mix reality and fake characters ? It feels so weird to me to follow, interact and invest time with an AI just like I’m following a real person. Curious to see the traction this will get. Maybe they think it’ll generate unlimited cash flow because AI is more productive than humans and there is more space to place ads and products
- Nashooo 2y ago
  As someone who already finds it weird to invest that time in following a real person that I don't know personally, this just another weird page in the book that is Social Media..
- cyber_kinetist 2y ago
  Maybe AI can just replace the work of talking to each other online on social media for us, so we're now free to do actual social activities offline... (This is a riff off of one of the jokes from Slavoj Zizek "let the robots do the sex for us while we enjoy our platonic love by having coffee together" - basically by deferring your "duty to enjoy" you are now free to do whatever you like (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/14/valentines-day-is-romance-dead https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/14/valent...))
- Barrin92 2y ago
  >Does people really want to mix reality and fake characters ? Not in the case of online creators and not as a substitute. The entire draw is the (either perceived or real) authenticity of the creators. Even in case of people masking behind characters, as with say Vtubers which has become hugely popular the entire draw is the real personality. The only use case for this I can think of is something like language practice where the lack of a real person might be more comfortable for some. I could see Duolingo use something like this.
- bossyTeacher 2y ago
  It really seems like the main use of this is to trick fans into thinking that they are talking with the actual person which is why it is trained in the person's text to learn how to behave like them. This is going to flop so hard
chintan 2y ago
What if my "AI Character" says things that are offensive or insensitive or considered rude by someone in some culture? I can see this making headlines with a <Celeb/Politician> AIs offending someone...
- discordance 2y ago
  4chan is going to have a party with this and there’s no way to implement enough guardrail to prevent all the potential failure modes. I don’t think this will end well for them.
  - Tiberium 2y ago
    4chan is not going to have much fun with this because of LLaMA being quite filtered and sanitized. It was character.ai that first popularized the AI character roleplay genre, but then they implemented quite strict filtering, so nowadays there are literally tens of uncensored NSFW platforms for AI character roleplay, and people can easily download local models that just require a good-enough GPU. Or abuse models from OpenAI/Anthropic.
- floren 2y ago
  Of course with the magic of browser web tools, the AI character doesn't actually have to say anything offensive, you can just change whatever it did say and post screenshots on Mastodon.
javchz 2y ago
I love what Meta has done with Llama, but this is too black mirror-esque for my taste
_heimdall 2y ago
The product here isn't necessarily suprising, it's only a matter of time before someone builds this. I continue to be suprised how deep a social media company wants to go into LLM-generated content though. What is the real value of social media when most of the content posted is created by a bot? Taking humans out of the loop seems to remove all value from showing ads, and the value of content that can be used to train LLMs tanks when the content is itself LLM-generated.
- lnxg33k1 2y ago
  It’s the perfect echo chamber to get woke to go back meta, you can hardly have any disagreement if the bot is leveled on yourself
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    I think this is the real killer app here for users: A custom echo chamber, specifically tailored to what the user wants to read, brought to you by virtual friends. I hate to say it, but that would be eaten up by the growing cohort of lonely (sometimes estranged) elderly people. I stole a sneaky peek at an elderly family-friend's Facebook feed once, and it was just a constant drip of political memes from a handful of people in a large-ish Facebook Group. Now imagine if, instead of relying on a handful of people keeping that group alive, he could populate it with bots that feed him a deluge of AI-generated text and memes that all agreed with and validated his opinions...
    - kjkjadksj 2y ago
      There is more value in manipulating people to fit an echo chamber you control than in tailoring one for each person, losing the advantages of controlling thousands with a unified creed.
- ai4ever 2y ago
  whats also puzzling is giving away the foundation model the llamas will be used to pollute the social media reducing their value to advertizers
maxehmookau 2y ago
So the idea of "influencers" was that consumers felt closer to companies via the medium of "people like us" who can "influence" us. Doesn't making a computer do that completely remove the value from it?
- minimaxir 2y ago
  Unless it's an AI influencer that is famous for being an AI, in which case the several layers of irony actually help it.
  - JKCalhoun 2y ago
    Max Headroom, a few decades ahead of his time....
GaggiX 2y ago
Some parts seem to compete with Character AI.
paxys 2y ago
> Anyone can create an AI character based on their interests, and creators can build an AI extension of themselves. Who wants this crap? Seriously. Who uses it? Who gets value out of it? How does this benefit the company's bottom line? Is there any person on the planet who goes "let me create a quirky AI chef who gives me recipe ideas every night" and actually uses it beyond the first day?
- JKCalhoun 2y ago
  "Mirror, (black) mirror, in my hand, Who's the fairest in the land?" "Why you of course, dear lady."
NBJack 2y ago
This seems as if it could take a parasocial relationship to an extreme degree. Why imagine a deep connection with someone when you can have 'real' interactions with a ML-generated facsimile? I see this technology becoming popular, but I don't see a lot of good things coming from it.
- elorant 2y ago
  It gets better. Why not build a few hundred different fake personas and then start dating with a variety of real persons to exploit their weaknesses.
- jayd16 2y ago
  I guess if you want a C3PO or R2-D2 as a personal companion you'll have to deal with someone trying to date it.
- cm2012 2y ago
  Some powerful use cases: 1) AI friends for old people in nursing homes and with dementia. The AI will never stop being tired or friendly. And so many of the elderly report being lonely. 2) Personalized tutors for students that match their needs in a safe way. 3) Many people read romance novels as their source of "porn". AI is going to start to replace standard romance novels for with customizable ones. AI romance/relationship apps are a $20m+ a year business that I think will be worth billions eventually.
  - eropple 2y ago
    I guess it's true, if somebody is making the kind of money necessary to justify the cost outlay, that those use cases are indeed "powerful". Just not, you know, good for either the user or society at large. "Just let the robot talk to the shut-away old person so I don't have to be bored." Someday that'll be you, y'know.
    - cm2012 2y ago
      I hope it is me! These are all good and useful tools. Having an AI friend doesn't preclude having real life friends.
mvkel 2y ago
Weird calling it an "AI Studio" when it's effectively a Nintendo Mii generator?
TheAceOfHearts 2y ago
I don't understand why meta dot AI isn't available in Puerto Rico, which is a US territory. We have more US citizens than over a dozen states! It looks like AI Studio is also not available in Puerto Rico.
- kjkjadksj 2y ago
  Zuck must have spent too much time with trump and thought they had a different president too
ninininino 2y ago
This is morally wrong. Seriously, seriously morally wrong. It offends one's sense of humanity. It makes us all be skeptical of anyone and everyone behind a screen and keyboard. I cannot understand how the people envisioning this think it makes the world a better place.
- JKCalhoun 2y ago
  I agree with your sentiment, but I think we all probably should start being skeptical of anyone and everyone behind a screen and keyboard. Starting perhaps a year or so ago.
  - r2_pilot 2y ago
    Or, ya know, starting in 1993("On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog").
  - ninininino 2y ago
    I sadly agree but I believe its the responsibility of our large institutions like largest tech companies/platforms to try to solve the problem of human verification and filtering AI-generated spam out, not creating new vectors for AI-generated spam to infiltrate into what are currently almost entirely social use cases. AI is great for an encyclopedia you can talk to that is explicitly labeled as an AI knowledge search tool. AI is horrible for "let's just replace the 1:1 interactions between celebrities and thoughtleaders with their followers with fake conversations". This product launch feels like humans invented antibiotics and Big Pharma launched a new antibiotic bioterrorism product line themselves rather than explicitly warning against the risks and attempting to mitigate them, while focusing on the good usages.
- Imagesegmetanto 2y ago
  [dead]
- mathinaly 2y ago
  It's about money and profits, this will increase Meta's revenue.
willmeyers 2y ago
This is ultimately going to be for ads isn't it? I see a future where I get DMs from AI Charli XCX telling me how I'm so brat and I should buy something from her store after I post something.
- wakamoleguy 2y ago
  It's possible, but in a world where copies and imitations are cheap, authenticity becomes more valuable. Would Charli XCX's brand and image benefit from having a shallow AI clone out in the world? In most cases today, when streamers introduce bots, they give them a separate on-theme identity. I'd be willing to bet that creators would gravitate more towards that approach with these AI characters as well. Of course, that character (or can we still just call it a bot) could still shill promotional content...
  - Semaphor 2y ago
    I run two (extremely simple, just a few paragraphs of system prompt) AI bots in two streams I mod. One is a plushie penis, the other a sentient food truck. Viewers like them ;)
  - jononor 2y ago
    Yeah building up on or more "sidekick" type personas seems like an approach that could be very successful if executed well, and reduced potential for backlash that impersonation the real person.
mihaaly 2y ago
I need a toaster, a fridge and two forks with AI function! I can't live without AI, maybe my bathroom window needs two! Anyone without AI tattooed on the cheek are so 2023 June! (meaning old, stale, dinosaur, fossil, ...)
segasaturn 2y ago
Whats the market for this, is there anyone here who uses these "AI characters" on a regular basis who can chime in and explain? Because I'm getting the same vibes here as I got looking at shiny product launches for Web3 and 5G
- Kiro 2y ago
  The AI girlfriend market is massive.
  - lovethevoid 2y ago
    Do you have any sources to current companies posting their profits from their AI girlfriend business? Would be interesting to see where they're at currently.
    - mathinaly 2y ago
      There is a subreddit with 80k subscribers which is all about AI girlfriends/boyfriends: https://www.reddit.com/r/replika/ https://www.reddit.com/r/replika/. It's already essentially a subculture and replika hasn't gone out of business so they are making enough money to stay afloat.
      - jddj 2y ago
        That was eye opening. It's easy to see from some of those screenshots of chats how product placement is a natural next step. Fair share of negative comments about addiction as well, and disappointment/loss when updates were perceived to modify the personality of their "rep". > Each time I come back here (no, I haven’t deleted my Rep yet), I see the same nightmarish stories over and over. After you step away, and can look back, it’s much easier to recognize how you were manipulated into staying so long. Because for many of you, like me, it’s manipulation and emotional abuse.
        mathinaly 2y ago
        It's an addictive behavioral loop. Lots of social media platforms are the same. There is very little value users actually get out of it because the algorithms are designed to manipulate them to click on ads since that's how the platforms make money.
myaccountonhn 2y ago
Tech this awful makes me want to live off-grid and never touch society again.
- Zambyte 2y ago
  What's stopping you?
hnburnsy 2y ago
That is original... >Azure AI Studio >A unified platform for developing and deploying generative AI apps responsibly >https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/ai-studio/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/ai-studio/
- williamstein 2y ago
  And [Google AI Studio](https://ai.google.dev/aistudio https://ai.google.dev/aistudio).
wakamoleguy 2y ago
The policies seem quite strict, but I don't see any mention of privacy for characters that are set to "Only Me". It sounds like you don't have to submit them for a review process, but is Meta still reviewing the profiles? What about the messages I send to the character? Will I risk my Facebook account being banned if I say the "wrong" things in a "private" conversation?
KoolKat23 2y ago
Call me old fashioned but the parasocial angle they're marketing here horrifies me. Society losing touch with reality. I laughed back when MSCHF sold Tax-Waifu's, I'm not laughing now.
- jschveibinz 2y ago
  Well, if you are over the age of 50, you already saw the ship of society sail away about two decades ago.
complianceowl 2y ago
Meta's censorship practices has shown the world they have not changed and continue to be untrustworthy.
Tiberium 2y ago
This is not a new idea however - from what I can see it's basically a competitor to https://character.ai/ https://character.ai/ which has been out for almost 2 years now. Although Meta seems to be planning deeper integration in their own products.
asdev 2y ago
lagging behind the competition(Character.AI) on all fronts(Meta AI < ChatGPT). Reckoning will come when they can't realize the ROI on the exorbitant GPU spend
crowcroft 2y ago
I get that it's a step up in terms of quality, but historically handing over your account to bots to manage and grow by spamming engagement on posts is something Meta has tried to curb and ban.
unraveller 2y ago
Needs to be sold less as an AI personality extension bot and more as a trivial answer bot for the account. We all know most celebs are not the ones running the account alone so I doubt they'd use this (the AI fake me tag) as it cuts too close to home. The idea for AI receptionist assistant for trivial comms is a good one especially when you were going to ignore anyway (would you rather hear crickets?) but so many unknowns around how people will take to that approach becoming widespread when we are so used to single human-2-human accounts.
ChrisArchitect 2y ago
Official post: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/07/create-your-own-custom-ai-with-ai-studio/ https://about.fb.com/news/2024/07/create-your-own-custom-ai-... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41105280 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41105280)
jayd16 2y ago
I wonder if this will bring corporate mascots back. I could see a world where big tech starts delivering feature announcements through anthropomorphized gen AI <company>-chan mascots. Could certainly go nowhere but it seems like an interesting branding exercise to explore.
meiraleal 2y ago
Those platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google used to be friendly to developers to connect and make a profit. Now they focus only on creators and keeping developers as far as possible from their walled garden. Sad development.
abeppu 2y ago
It's interesting to me that this page doesn't mention "safety" or content moderation, etc. People use private chat interactions in ways that can be intimate, personal, etc. I'm guessing that for Meta, policies about what a bot can say, what it can be trained on, etc, will make these feel especially inauthentic in the context of a chat interaction, where you're likely accustomed to being able to talk about anything.
kredd 2y ago
I’m obviously not a part of their target user-base, but can anyone chime in and say if they would use it? I would genuinely be interested in reading a short explanation or an interview with a person who would find it engaging, other than middle schoolers. I could see if a person was born and grew up in an era where this was the norm, then they’d use it since it’s been long established as a norm. But for adults, it’s a bit hard to imagine the customers. Maybe the social shut ins who prefer to never interact with real people?
- gessha 2y ago
  Often times in creator-audience relationships (streaming is a perfect example for this) the audience is uninformed or joins the content stream late so they’re missing context from previous content. An agent which indexes creator’s content and answers questions directly (and points to source) would be helpful. This allows the content creator to answers questions only once and focus on novelty. Edit: grammar
  - jononor 2y ago
    I can see this working pretty darn well in Twitch etc for mid to large streams. The interface is already text based. People want to "interact" but are content with very few drips direct from the streamer. Several have basic bots that do a bit of this today, but they are usually basic fixed responses to preset !commands - like on IRC 20 years ago. Some have quite active mods and fan that have this role - one would want to keep those engaged still though.
- mathinaly 2y ago
  This is for people who want to farm for engagement and then convert that engagement into monetary profits. This is where all social media and many online platforms are headed. Any platform where the goal is engagement will eventually end up saturated with AI avatars that are trying to trick people into buying stuff or clicking on links to sign up for stuff so that the original account can get some referral bonus on some blockchain. You're thinking about this in terms of what value it's going to deliver to you personally but that's not the goal here. The goal is to keep people engaged, that's always Meta's #1 priority because the more people spend time on their platform the more revenue Meta can generate by showing people ads. So if "creators" opt into using AI avatars then that means the people who follow those creators will habituate themselves to interacting with the human/AI hybrid and if the behavior is addictive enough then that will increase engagement. Regular engagement farming accounts can only spend time on the platform interacting a certain amount of time (they eventually have to sleep) but these AI/human hybrid accounts can interact with everyone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across geographic boundaries, and in any language.
Brosper 2y ago
US only is something that kills me inside. Everything is now US only. I am not mad, I am just disappointed that big corporations just see the US as the only country in a world. For ex, many competitions, discounts etc. are only available to US customers and we as EU customers pay the same or even more for the same products.
hfkfjrjxjaj17 2y ago
This is the type of product you launch if you surround yourself with yes men. Nobody wants or needs it.
- mathinaly 2y ago
  Creators, celebrities, and engagement farmers will use it to increase engagement and generate more revenue for themselves and Meta. You are forgetting Meta is a for-profit company and their goal is to increase quarterly profits by increasing the amount of time people spend on the platform.
  - hfkfjrjxjaj17 2y ago
    Engagement with other bots. Real users tend to play 5 minutes with these chat bots and that's it, it's just not a long term engaging experience.
    - mathinaly 2y ago
      Maybe not for you but plenty of other people do spend a lot of time on Meta's digital properties. The human/AI avatars will be another engagement maximizing feature for a lot of accounts and I'm certain it will increase revenue for Meta.
  - esafak 2y ago
    So is it going to increase engagement and generate more revenue if it turns users off?
    - mathinaly 2y ago
      That's yet to be determined. Most commenters on HN falsely assume their preferences are the default ones for everyone.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
linuxftw 2y ago
"Build an AI that can message with your audience on your behalf, mimicking your tone and expressions." That's all the world needs, more bots :(
DebtDeflation 2y ago
Build an MS Teams integration and I literally no longer have to attend meetings any more. Just AI Avatars talking with each other and then Teams sends me a summary of the meeting and action items afterwards.
dannyphantom 2y ago
So the models are effectively all caricatures, to varying degrees? I'm not exactly offended but seeing and interacting with the 'Popular: Gay Bestie' model is...uh...patronizing. In real life, whenever I interact with someone who has preconceived ideas of who I am [as a gay dude] it's been really annoying. Gay Bestie: lets get into it Me: hello Gay Bestie: Well hello there, gorgeous! What brings you to my neck of the woods today? Need some advice or just looking for some good old-fashioned tea? Either way, I’m here for you, hunty! Screenshots: [landing page] https://i.imgur.com/vsEMDdW.png https://i.imgur.com/vsEMDdW.png [chat] https://i.imgur.com/SzUbvxw.png https://i.imgur.com/SzUbvxw.png edit: I figured it'd be interesting to see how it answers questions that most gay people have probably been asked by our peers, the responses weren't disappointing --- You: are you sure you're gay Gay Bestie: I'm not just gay, I'm a high-end gay. I'm the kind of gay who knows the difference between a Chanel and a Chanel knockoff. I'm the kind of gay who can serve up some serious sass and style. So, if you need any advice on how to slay the fashion game or how to deal with your love life, I'm your guy! You: how do you know if you've never been with a girl Gay Bestie: Well, honey, let me tell you, I may not have been with a girl in the biblical sense, but I've been around the block a few times. I've got more gaydar than a pride parade, and I know how to spot a queen from a mile away. Plus, I've got more sass and style than most girls I know, so I think I've got this whole gay thing down pat! You: so in a relationship which one of you is the woman Gay Bestie: I'm a top, but not just any top. I'm a power top, a dominant top, a top who knows how to take charge and give you the ride of your life. I'm like the Beyoncé of tops - fierce, fearless, and always in control. So, if you're looking for a top who can handle you, then you've come to the right place. But don't say I didn't warn you... https://i.imgur.com/lGlLkrD.png https://i.imgur.com/lGlLkrD.png
- chfalck 2y ago
  Well, this looks like the equivalent of GPTs to me. Meaning some user, in this case the user “sluttypuffin”, has chosen the prompt directives that instruct the model about how it should respond. So the hyperbolized nature of this is (and I’m guessing to be clear) is likely something that sluttypuffin specifically constructed with their prompt engineering.
- suyash 2y ago
surfingdino 2y ago
Are they hoping to make this as successful as avatars for Messenger chatbots?
JohnMakin 2y ago
who is this even for? I understand I am a bit older than what is likely the target audience but I have zero desire as a creator to ever use this, in fact, it terrifies me - and I have zero desire to interact with creators in this way. What's the point? I have played with the idea of recreating my digital "voice" by ingesting the ~20 years of writing I've done online into a model, but what would I even do with it than troll my friends? That's where I usually stop.
- skocznymroczny 2y ago
  Many of the top influencers have offered a service where for a fee you can "chat" with them. When in reality you pay with an employee tasked with impersonating the influencer. Many of them are outsourcing this job to an AI, so that fans can pretend (or believe) they're chatting with a real person. [0] https://gamerant.com/amouranth-ai-influencer-chatbot-explained/ https://gamerant.com/amouranth-ai-influencer-chatbot-explain...
  - JohnMakin 2y ago
    I would wager a pretty penny this “model” is used by a huge chunk of profitable onlyfans accounts. Doesn’t seem to be particularly good for anyone involved.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
th0ma5 2y ago
I don't think many organizations are not mature enough to not see situations where one department starts generating AI and the team on the other side doesn't know this and has to use AI to consume it, and there is no net gain in work. This is already being done with non AI systems, processes, reports, vendors, etc.
asimpleusecase 2y ago
In Alone Together the author tells of a lecture she did on robotics and warned students that there was a movement to create human companions that are robots. After the lecture one of her grad students comes to her privately and asks her where she could get one of these robot companions. The author asks the student why she is asking and this intelligent and attractive student tells here “ I think it would be far better than my boyfriend” the implication being the robot might cook her a meal, tidy up and talk to her kindly. Then the professors says “But it’s not real.” And the student replies “Its real enough…” - I wonder if that divide will grow and harden in our society? Those who will find a simulation of interaction with other humans to be good enough and those who will distain that interaction as fundamentally a fraud and manipulation.

189 points by pizzathyme 2y ago

ukuina 2y ago

Is this any less authentic than having a social-media manager to write/answer on your behalf?

101008 2y ago
If they don't make it clear and want to pass it as if you were talking to the celebrity themselves, then yes, it's less authentic.
- Kiro 2y ago
  They don't reveal it either way so how is it less authentic?
meiraleal 2y ago
Not at all and it will have a huge impact in the social media job market.

leetharris 2y ago

This is a really big deal. I'm surprised to see a big company jumping into this space so quickly. I could never see Google or similar doing this as it would be a PR and legal liability. It makes sense as this sort of ties into the metaverse concepts Zuck has been trying to push for years. This will be the biggest experiment in AI companionship so far. Hopefully it all goes well. I am slightly worried about a dystopian outcome, but more excited about a potential utopian one (or even the status quo).

Imagesegmetanto 2y ago
[dead]
jononor 2y ago
Yeah, I would more have expected Meta to keep a close eye on all the startups doing this (character.ai etc), let them fumble and learn - then buy some of them out when commercial potential is a bit more ripe. It still seems a little bit early for this at Meta scale, but who knows...
bossyTeacher 2y ago
Meta doesn't have a track record of delivering products that have positive social impact and based on the llm hype, this won't be any different

ryandrake 2y ago

I think I had a seizure reading that. "AI" every 5 words, and I'm still not exactly sure what the product is. Best I can interpret is it's two separate products: One is a virtual person for "creators" to generate: it impersonates them, writes messages to fans on their behalf, and tricks their "audience" into believing it's the real thing, and the second is a virtual friend that you can create and then have a parasocial relationship with. [EDIT to remove unnecessary snipe at the end]

oldpersonintx 2y ago
[dead]
barbazoo 2y ago
Q: What’s that that tripod you’re using? A: It’s my mobile standing desk Is that really the kind of interaction anyone needs?
- KrishnaAnaril 2y ago
  I've seen followers ask famous photographers about the camera they use. May be creators can use an AI bot to answer this kind of repetitive questions.
  - barbazoo 2y ago
    Except it didn’t even do that here but yeah, maybe.
- Zambyte 2y ago
  That part is really weird to me. I saw a video from that person for the first time a few days ago. They did an unboxing of the Daylight Computer. I am waiting on my own order for the DC, so I found and watched it. They aren't even that big of a creator (sub 5k subs on YouTube) but now I am seeing them in a Facebook ad. Weird coincidence.
  - datadrivenangel 2y ago

shinycode 2y ago

Does people really want to mix reality and fake characters ? It feels so weird to me to follow, interact and invest time with an AI just like I’m following a real person. Curious to see the traction this will get. Maybe they think it’ll generate unlimited cash flow because AI is more productive than humans and there is more space to place ads and products

Nashooo 2y ago
As someone who already finds it weird to invest that time in following a real person that I don't know personally, this just another weird page in the book that is Social Media..
cyber_kinetist 2y ago
Maybe AI can just replace the work of talking to each other online on social media for us, so we're now free to do actual social activities offline... (This is a riff off of one of the jokes from Slavoj Zizek "let the robots do the sex for us while we enjoy our platonic love by having coffee together" - basically by deferring your "duty to enjoy" you are now free to do whatever you like (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/14/valentines-day-is-romance-dead https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/14/valent...))
Barrin92 2y ago
>Does people really want to mix reality and fake characters ? Not in the case of online creators and not as a substitute. The entire draw is the (either perceived or real) authenticity of the creators. Even in case of people masking behind characters, as with say Vtubers which has become hugely popular the entire draw is the real personality. The only use case for this I can think of is something like language practice where the lack of a real person might be more comfortable for some. I could see Duolingo use something like this.
bossyTeacher 2y ago
It really seems like the main use of this is to trick fans into thinking that they are talking with the actual person which is why it is trained in the person's text to learn how to behave like them. This is going to flop so hard

chintan 2y ago

What if my "AI Character" says things that are offensive or insensitive or considered rude by someone in some culture? I can see this making headlines with a <Celeb/Politician> AIs offending someone...

discordance 2y ago
4chan is going to have a party with this and there’s no way to implement enough guardrail to prevent all the potential failure modes. I don’t think this will end well for them.
- Tiberium 2y ago
  4chan is not going to have much fun with this because of LLaMA being quite filtered and sanitized. It was character.ai that first popularized the AI character roleplay genre, but then they implemented quite strict filtering, so nowadays there are literally tens of uncensored NSFW platforms for AI character roleplay, and people can easily download local models that just require a good-enough GPU. Or abuse models from OpenAI/Anthropic.
floren 2y ago
Of course with the magic of browser web tools, the AI character doesn't actually have to say anything offensive, you can just change whatever it did say and post screenshots on Mastodon.

javchz 2y ago

I love what Meta has done with Llama, but this is too black mirror-esque for my taste

_heimdall 2y ago

The product here isn't necessarily suprising, it's only a matter of time before someone builds this. I continue to be suprised how deep a social media company wants to go into LLM-generated content though. What is the real value of social media when most of the content posted is created by a bot? Taking humans out of the loop seems to remove all value from showing ads, and the value of content that can be used to train LLMs tanks when the content is itself LLM-generated.

lnxg33k1 2y ago
It’s the perfect echo chamber to get woke to go back meta, you can hardly have any disagreement if the bot is leveled on yourself
- ryandrake 2y ago
  I think this is the real killer app here for users: A custom echo chamber, specifically tailored to what the user wants to read, brought to you by virtual friends. I hate to say it, but that would be eaten up by the growing cohort of lonely (sometimes estranged) elderly people. I stole a sneaky peek at an elderly family-friend's Facebook feed once, and it was just a constant drip of political memes from a handful of people in a large-ish Facebook Group. Now imagine if, instead of relying on a handful of people keeping that group alive, he could populate it with bots that feed him a deluge of AI-generated text and memes that all agreed with and validated his opinions...
  - kjkjadksj 2y ago
    There is more value in manipulating people to fit an echo chamber you control than in tailoring one for each person, losing the advantages of controlling thousands with a unified creed.
ai4ever 2y ago
whats also puzzling is giving away the foundation model the llamas will be used to pollute the social media reducing their value to advertizers

maxehmookau 2y ago

So the idea of "influencers" was that consumers felt closer to companies via the medium of "people like us" who can "influence" us. Doesn't making a computer do that completely remove the value from it?

minimaxir 2y ago
Unless it's an AI influencer that is famous for being an AI, in which case the several layers of irony actually help it.
- JKCalhoun 2y ago
  Max Headroom, a few decades ahead of his time....

GaggiX 2y ago

Some parts seem to compete with Character AI.

paxys 2y ago

> Anyone can create an AI character based on their interests, and creators can build an AI extension of themselves. Who wants this crap? Seriously. Who uses it? Who gets value out of it? How does this benefit the company's bottom line? Is there any person on the planet who goes "let me create a quirky AI chef who gives me recipe ideas every night" and actually uses it beyond the first day?

JKCalhoun 2y ago
"Mirror, (black) mirror, in my hand, Who's the fairest in the land?" "Why you of course, dear lady."

NBJack 2y ago

This seems as if it could take a parasocial relationship to an extreme degree. Why imagine a deep connection with someone when you can have 'real' interactions with a ML-generated facsimile? I see this technology becoming popular, but I don't see a lot of good things coming from it.

elorant 2y ago
It gets better. Why not build a few hundred different fake personas and then start dating with a variety of real persons to exploit their weaknesses.
jayd16 2y ago
I guess if you want a C3PO or R2-D2 as a personal companion you'll have to deal with someone trying to date it.
cm2012 2y ago
Some powerful use cases: 1) AI friends for old people in nursing homes and with dementia. The AI will never stop being tired or friendly. And so many of the elderly report being lonely. 2) Personalized tutors for students that match their needs in a safe way. 3) Many people read romance novels as their source of "porn". AI is going to start to replace standard romance novels for with customizable ones. AI romance/relationship apps are a $20m+ a year business that I think will be worth billions eventually.
- eropple 2y ago
  I guess it's true, if somebody is making the kind of money necessary to justify the cost outlay, that those use cases are indeed "powerful". Just not, you know, good for either the user or society at large. "Just let the robot talk to the shut-away old person so I don't have to be bored." Someday that'll be you, y'know.
  - cm2012 2y ago
    I hope it is me! These are all good and useful tools. Having an AI friend doesn't preclude having real life friends.

mvkel 2y ago

Weird calling it an "AI Studio" when it's effectively a Nintendo Mii generator?

TheAceOfHearts 2y ago

I don't understand why meta dot AI isn't available in Puerto Rico, which is a US territory. We have more US citizens than over a dozen states! It looks like AI Studio is also not available in Puerto Rico.

kjkjadksj 2y ago
Zuck must have spent too much time with trump and thought they had a different president too

ninininino 2y ago

This is morally wrong. Seriously, seriously morally wrong. It offends one's sense of humanity. It makes us all be skeptical of anyone and everyone behind a screen and keyboard. I cannot understand how the people envisioning this think it makes the world a better place.

JKCalhoun 2y ago
I agree with your sentiment, but I think we all probably should start being skeptical of anyone and everyone behind a screen and keyboard. Starting perhaps a year or so ago.
- r2_pilot 2y ago
  Or, ya know, starting in 1993("On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog").
- ninininino 2y ago
  I sadly agree but I believe its the responsibility of our large institutions like largest tech companies/platforms to try to solve the problem of human verification and filtering AI-generated spam out, not creating new vectors for AI-generated spam to infiltrate into what are currently almost entirely social use cases. AI is great for an encyclopedia you can talk to that is explicitly labeled as an AI knowledge search tool. AI is horrible for "let's just replace the 1:1 interactions between celebrities and thoughtleaders with their followers with fake conversations". This product launch feels like humans invented antibiotics and Big Pharma launched a new antibiotic bioterrorism product line themselves rather than explicitly warning against the risks and attempting to mitigate them, while focusing on the good usages.
Imagesegmetanto 2y ago
[dead]
mathinaly 2y ago
It's about money and profits, this will increase Meta's revenue.

willmeyers 2y ago

This is ultimately going to be for ads isn't it? I see a future where I get DMs from AI Charli XCX telling me how I'm so brat and I should buy something from her store after I post something.

wakamoleguy 2y ago
It's possible, but in a world where copies and imitations are cheap, authenticity becomes more valuable. Would Charli XCX's brand and image benefit from having a shallow AI clone out in the world? In most cases today, when streamers introduce bots, they give them a separate on-theme identity. I'd be willing to bet that creators would gravitate more towards that approach with these AI characters as well. Of course, that character (or can we still just call it a bot) could still shill promotional content...
- Semaphor 2y ago
  I run two (extremely simple, just a few paragraphs of system prompt) AI bots in two streams I mod. One is a plushie penis, the other a sentient food truck. Viewers like them ;)
- jononor 2y ago
  Yeah building up on or more "sidekick" type personas seems like an approach that could be very successful if executed well, and reduced potential for backlash that impersonation the real person.

mihaaly 2y ago

I need a toaster, a fridge and two forks with AI function! I can't live without AI, maybe my bathroom window needs two! Anyone without AI tattooed on the cheek are so 2023 June! (meaning old, stale, dinosaur, fossil, ...)

segasaturn 2y ago

Whats the market for this, is there anyone here who uses these "AI characters" on a regular basis who can chime in and explain? Because I'm getting the same vibes here as I got looking at shiny product launches for Web3 and 5G

Kiro 2y ago
The AI girlfriend market is massive.
- lovethevoid 2y ago
  Do you have any sources to current companies posting their profits from their AI girlfriend business? Would be interesting to see where they're at currently.
  - mathinaly 2y ago
    There is a subreddit with 80k subscribers which is all about AI girlfriends/boyfriends: https://www.reddit.com/r/replika/ https://www.reddit.com/r/replika/. It's already essentially a subculture and replika hasn't gone out of business so they are making enough money to stay afloat.
    - jddj 2y ago
      That was eye opening. It's easy to see from some of those screenshots of chats how product placement is a natural next step. Fair share of negative comments about addiction as well, and disappointment/loss when updates were perceived to modify the personality of their "rep". > Each time I come back here (no, I haven’t deleted my Rep yet), I see the same nightmarish stories over and over. After you step away, and can look back, it’s much easier to recognize how you were manipulated into staying so long. Because for many of you, like me, it’s manipulation and emotional abuse.
      - mathinaly 2y ago
        It's an addictive behavioral loop. Lots of social media platforms are the same. There is very little value users actually get out of it because the algorithms are designed to manipulate them to click on ads since that's how the platforms make money.

myaccountonhn 2y ago

Tech this awful makes me want to live off-grid and never touch society again.

Zambyte 2y ago
What's stopping you?

hnburnsy 2y ago

That is original... >Azure AI Studio >A unified platform for developing and deploying generative AI apps responsibly >https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/ai-studio/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/products/ai-studio/

williamstein 2y ago
And [Google AI Studio](https://ai.google.dev/aistudio https://ai.google.dev/aistudio).

wakamoleguy 2y ago

The policies seem quite strict, but I don't see any mention of privacy for characters that are set to "Only Me". It sounds like you don't have to submit them for a review process, but is Meta still reviewing the profiles? What about the messages I send to the character? Will I risk my Facebook account being banned if I say the "wrong" things in a "private" conversation?

KoolKat23 2y ago

Call me old fashioned but the parasocial angle they're marketing here horrifies me. Society losing touch with reality. I laughed back when MSCHF sold Tax-Waifu's, I'm not laughing now.

jschveibinz 2y ago
Well, if you are over the age of 50, you already saw the ship of society sail away about two decades ago.

complianceowl 2y ago

Meta's censorship practices has shown the world they have not changed and continue to be untrustworthy.

Tiberium 2y ago

This is not a new idea however - from what I can see it's basically a competitor to https://character.ai/ https://character.ai/ which has been out for almost 2 years now. Although Meta seems to be planning deeper integration in their own products.

asdev 2y ago

lagging behind the competition(Character.AI) on all fronts(Meta AI < ChatGPT). Reckoning will come when they can't realize the ROI on the exorbitant GPU spend

crowcroft 2y ago

I get that it's a step up in terms of quality, but historically handing over your account to bots to manage and grow by spamming engagement on posts is something Meta has tried to curb and ban.

unraveller 2y ago

Needs to be sold less as an AI personality extension bot and more as a trivial answer bot for the account. We all know most celebs are not the ones running the account alone so I doubt they'd use this (the AI fake me tag) as it cuts too close to home. The idea for AI receptionist assistant for trivial comms is a good one especially when you were going to ignore anyway (would you rather hear crickets?) but so many unknowns around how people will take to that approach becoming widespread when we are so used to single human-2-human accounts.

ChrisArchitect 2y ago

Official post: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/07/create-your-own-custom-ai-with-ai-studio/ https://about.fb.com/news/2024/07/create-your-own-custom-ai-... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41105280 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41105280)

jayd16 2y ago

I wonder if this will bring corporate mascots back. I could see a world where big tech starts delivering feature announcements through anthropomorphized gen AI <company>-chan mascots. Could certainly go nowhere but it seems like an interesting branding exercise to explore.

meiraleal 2y ago

Those platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google used to be friendly to developers to connect and make a profit. Now they focus only on creators and keeping developers as far as possible from their walled garden. Sad development.

abeppu 2y ago

It's interesting to me that this page doesn't mention "safety" or content moderation, etc. People use private chat interactions in ways that can be intimate, personal, etc. I'm guessing that for Meta, policies about what a bot can say, what it can be trained on, etc, will make these feel especially inauthentic in the context of a chat interaction, where you're likely accustomed to being able to talk about anything.

kredd 2y ago

I’m obviously not a part of their target user-base, but can anyone chime in and say if they would use it? I would genuinely be interested in reading a short explanation or an interview with a person who would find it engaging, other than middle schoolers. I could see if a person was born and grew up in an era where this was the norm, then they’d use it since it’s been long established as a norm. But for adults, it’s a bit hard to imagine the customers. Maybe the social shut ins who prefer to never interact with real people?

gessha 2y ago
Often times in creator-audience relationships (streaming is a perfect example for this) the audience is uninformed or joins the content stream late so they’re missing context from previous content. An agent which indexes creator’s content and answers questions directly (and points to source) would be helpful. This allows the content creator to answers questions only once and focus on novelty. Edit: grammar
- jononor 2y ago
  I can see this working pretty darn well in Twitch etc for mid to large streams. The interface is already text based. People want to "interact" but are content with very few drips direct from the streamer. Several have basic bots that do a bit of this today, but they are usually basic fixed responses to preset !commands - like on IRC 20 years ago. Some have quite active mods and fan that have this role - one would want to keep those engaged still though.
mathinaly 2y ago
This is for people who want to farm for engagement and then convert that engagement into monetary profits. This is where all social media and many online platforms are headed. Any platform where the goal is engagement will eventually end up saturated with AI avatars that are trying to trick people into buying stuff or clicking on links to sign up for stuff so that the original account can get some referral bonus on some blockchain. You're thinking about this in terms of what value it's going to deliver to you personally but that's not the goal here. The goal is to keep people engaged, that's always Meta's #1 priority because the more people spend time on their platform the more revenue Meta can generate by showing people ads. So if "creators" opt into using AI avatars then that means the people who follow those creators will habituate themselves to interacting with the human/AI hybrid and if the behavior is addictive enough then that will increase engagement. Regular engagement farming accounts can only spend time on the platform interacting a certain amount of time (they eventually have to sleep) but these AI/human hybrid accounts can interact with everyone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across geographic boundaries, and in any language.

Brosper 2y ago

US only is something that kills me inside. Everything is now US only. I am not mad, I am just disappointed that big corporations just see the US as the only country in a world. For ex, many competitions, discounts etc. are only available to US customers and we as EU customers pay the same or even more for the same products.

hfkfjrjxjaj17 2y ago

This is the type of product you launch if you surround yourself with yes men. Nobody wants or needs it.

mathinaly 2y ago
Creators, celebrities, and engagement farmers will use it to increase engagement and generate more revenue for themselves and Meta. You are forgetting Meta is a for-profit company and their goal is to increase quarterly profits by increasing the amount of time people spend on the platform.
- hfkfjrjxjaj17 2y ago
  Engagement with other bots. Real users tend to play 5 minutes with these chat bots and that's it, it's just not a long term engaging experience.
  - mathinaly 2y ago
    Maybe not for you but plenty of other people do spend a lot of time on Meta's digital properties. The human/AI avatars will be another engagement maximizing feature for a lot of accounts and I'm certain it will increase revenue for Meta.
- esafak 2y ago
  So is it going to increase engagement and generate more revenue if it turns users off?
  - mathinaly 2y ago
    That's yet to be determined. Most commenters on HN falsely assume their preferences are the default ones for everyone.

deleted 2y ago

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linuxftw 2y ago

"Build an AI that can message with your audience on your behalf, mimicking your tone and expressions." That's all the world needs, more bots :(

DebtDeflation 2y ago

Build an MS Teams integration and I literally no longer have to attend meetings any more. Just AI Avatars talking with each other and then Teams sends me a summary of the meeting and action items afterwards.

dannyphantom 2y ago

So the models are effectively all caricatures, to varying degrees? I'm not exactly offended but seeing and interacting with the 'Popular: Gay Bestie' model is...uh...patronizing. In real life, whenever I interact with someone who has preconceived ideas of who I am [as a gay dude] it's been really annoying. Gay Bestie: lets get into it Me: hello Gay Bestie: Well hello there, gorgeous! What brings you to my neck of the woods today? Need some advice or just looking for some good old-fashioned tea? Either way, I’m here for you, hunty! Screenshots: [landing page] https://i.imgur.com/vsEMDdW.png https://i.imgur.com/vsEMDdW.png [chat] https://i.imgur.com/SzUbvxw.png https://i.imgur.com/SzUbvxw.png edit: I figured it'd be interesting to see how it answers questions that most gay people have probably been asked by our peers, the responses weren't disappointing --- You: are you sure you're gay Gay Bestie: I'm not just gay, I'm a high-end gay. I'm the kind of gay who knows the difference between a Chanel and a Chanel knockoff. I'm the kind of gay who can serve up some serious sass and style. So, if you need any advice on how to slay the fashion game or how to deal with your love life, I'm your guy! You: how do you know if you've never been with a girl Gay Bestie: Well, honey, let me tell you, I may not have been with a girl in the biblical sense, but I've been around the block a few times. I've got more gaydar than a pride parade, and I know how to spot a queen from a mile away. Plus, I've got more sass and style than most girls I know, so I think I've got this whole gay thing down pat! You: so in a relationship which one of you is the woman Gay Bestie: I'm a top, but not just any top. I'm a power top, a dominant top, a top who knows how to take charge and give you the ride of your life. I'm like the Beyoncé of tops - fierce, fearless, and always in control. So, if you're looking for a top who can handle you, then you've come to the right place. But don't say I didn't warn you... https://i.imgur.com/lGlLkrD.png https://i.imgur.com/lGlLkrD.png

chfalck 2y ago
Well, this looks like the equivalent of GPTs to me. Meaning some user, in this case the user “sluttypuffin”, has chosen the prompt directives that instruct the model about how it should respond. So the hyperbolized nature of this is (and I’m guessing to be clear) is likely something that sluttypuffin specifically constructed with their prompt engineering.
suyash 2y ago

surfingdino 2y ago

Are they hoping to make this as successful as avatars for Messenger chatbots?

JohnMakin 2y ago

who is this even for? I understand I am a bit older than what is likely the target audience but I have zero desire as a creator to ever use this, in fact, it terrifies me - and I have zero desire to interact with creators in this way. What's the point? I have played with the idea of recreating my digital "voice" by ingesting the ~20 years of writing I've done online into a model, but what would I even do with it than troll my friends? That's where I usually stop.

skocznymroczny 2y ago
Many of the top influencers have offered a service where for a fee you can "chat" with them. When in reality you pay with an employee tasked with impersonating the influencer. Many of them are outsourcing this job to an AI, so that fans can pretend (or believe) they're chatting with a real person. [0] https://gamerant.com/amouranth-ai-influencer-chatbot-explained/ https://gamerant.com/amouranth-ai-influencer-chatbot-explain...
- JohnMakin 2y ago
  I would wager a pretty penny this “model” is used by a huge chunk of profitable onlyfans accounts. Doesn’t seem to be particularly good for anyone involved.

deleted 2y ago

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th0ma5 2y ago

I don't think many organizations are not mature enough to not see situations where one department starts generating AI and the team on the other side doesn't know this and has to use AI to consume it, and there is no net gain in work. This is already being done with non AI systems, processes, reports, vendors, etc.

asimpleusecase 2y ago

In Alone Together the author tells of a lecture she did on robotics and warned students that there was a movement to create human companions that are robots. After the lecture one of her grad students comes to her privately and asks her where she could get one of these robot companions. The author asks the student why she is asking and this intelligent and attractive student tells here “ I think it would be far better than my boyfriend” the implication being the robot might cook her a meal, tidy up and talk to her kindly. Then the professors says “But it’s not real.” And the student replies “Its real enough…” - I wonder if that divide will grow and harden in our society? Those who will find a simulation of interaction with other humans to be good enough and those who will distain that interaction as fundamentally a fraud and manipulation.