3 ms·

The study is based on having LLMs decide to amplify one of the top ten posts on their timeline or share a news headline. LLMs aren’t people, and the authors hav

by Zak 1y ago

The study is based on having LLMs decide to amplify one of the top ten posts on their timeline or share a news headline. LLMs aren’t people, and the authors have not convinced me that they will behave like people in this context. The behavioral options are restricted to posting news headlines, reposting news headlines, or being passive. There’s no option to create original content, and no interventions centered on discouraging reposting. Facebook has experimented[0] with limits to reposting and found such limits discouraged the spread of divisive content and misinformation. I mostly use social media to share pictures of birds[1]. This contributes to some of the problems the source article[2] discusses. It causes fragmentation; people who don’t like bird photos won’t follow me. It leads to disparity of influence; I think I have more followers than the average Mastodon account. I sometimes even amplify conflict[3]. [0] https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/internal-research-from-facebook-shows-that-re-shares-can-significantly-ampl/609614/ https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/internal-research-from... [1] https://social.goodanser.com/@zaktakespictures/ https://social.goodanser.com/@zaktakespictures/ [2] https://arxiv.org/html/2508.03385v1#S3 https://arxiv.org/html/2508.03385v1#S3 [3] https://social.goodanser.com/@zaktakespictures/113948194602154850 https://social.goodanser.com/@zaktakespictures/1139481946021...

lemming 1y ago
LLMs aren’t people, and the authors have not convinced me that they will behave like people in this context. This was my initial reaction as well, before reading the interview in full. They admit that there are problems with the approach, but they seem to have designed the simulation in a very thoughtful way. There really doesn't seem to be a better approach, apart from enlisting vast numbers of people instead of using LLMs/agent systems. That has its own problems as well of course, even leaving cost and difficulty aside. There’s no option to create original content... While this is true, I'd say the vast majority of users don't create original content either, but still end up shaping the social media environment through the actions that they did model. Again, it's not perfect but I'm more convinced that it might be useful after reading the interview.
- Zak 1y ago
  I'm not sure the experiment can be done other than to try interventions on real users of a public social media service as Facebook did in the article I linked. Of course people running those services usually don't have the incentives to test harm reduction strategies and certainly don't want to publicize the results. > the vast majority of users don't create original content That's true now at least most of the time, but I think it's as much because of design and algorithmic decisions by the platforms to emphasize other types of content. Early Facebook in particular was mostly original content shared between people who knew each other. The biggest problem with that was it wasn't very profitable.
- nradov 1y ago
  Nonsense. The vast majority of my Facebook friends post at least some original content.
  - lemming 1y ago
    Fortunately we don't have to rely on your anecdata, people actually study this stuff: https://news.gallup.com/poll/467792/social-media-users-inclined-browse-post-content.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/467792/social-media-users-incli... U.S. adults commonly engage with popular social media platforms but are more inclined to browse content on those websites and apps than to post their own content to them. The vast majority of those who say they use these platforms have accounts with them, but less than half who have accounts -- and even smaller proportions of all U.S. adults -- post their own content. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/04/24/sizing-up-twitter-users https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/04/24/sizing-up-tw... Most users rarely tweet, but the most prolific 10% create 80% of tweets from adult U.S. users https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/11/15/the-behaviors-and-attitudes-of-u-s-adults-on-twitter https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/11/15/the-behavior... The analysis also reveals another familiar pattern on social media: that a relatively small share of highly active users produce the vast majority of content.
    - nradov 1y ago
      That's junk science and doesn't refute the specific point I made. Facebook users are far more likely to post original content than X users. It might just be some blurry backlit vacation photos but it is original content.

by Zak 1y ago

lemming 1y ago

LLMs aren’t people, and the authors have not convinced me that they will behave like people in this context. This was my initial reaction as well, before reading the interview in full. They admit that there are problems with the approach, but they seem to have designed the simulation in a very thoughtful way. There really doesn't seem to be a better approach, apart from enlisting vast numbers of people instead of using LLMs/agent systems. That has its own problems as well of course, even leaving cost and difficulty aside. There’s no option to create original content... While this is true, I'd say the vast majority of users don't create original content either, but still end up shaping the social media environment through the actions that they did model. Again, it's not perfect but I'm more convinced that it might be useful after reading the interview.

Zak 1y ago
I'm not sure the experiment can be done other than to try interventions on real users of a public social media service as Facebook did in the article I linked. Of course people running those services usually don't have the incentives to test harm reduction strategies and certainly don't want to publicize the results. > the vast majority of users don't create original content That's true now at least most of the time, but I think it's as much because of design and algorithmic decisions by the platforms to emphasize other types of content. Early Facebook in particular was mostly original content shared between people who knew each other. The biggest problem with that was it wasn't very profitable.
nradov 1y ago
Nonsense. The vast majority of my Facebook friends post at least some original content.
- lemming 1y ago
  Fortunately we don't have to rely on your anecdata, people actually study this stuff: https://news.gallup.com/poll/467792/social-media-users-inclined-browse-post-content.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/467792/social-media-users-incli... U.S. adults commonly engage with popular social media platforms but are more inclined to browse content on those websites and apps than to post their own content to them. The vast majority of those who say they use these platforms have accounts with them, but less than half who have accounts -- and even smaller proportions of all U.S. adults -- post their own content. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/04/24/sizing-up-twitter-users https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/04/24/sizing-up-tw... Most users rarely tweet, but the most prolific 10% create 80% of tweets from adult U.S. users https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/11/15/the-behaviors-and-attitudes-of-u-s-adults-on-twitter https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/11/15/the-behavior... The analysis also reveals another familiar pattern on social media: that a relatively small share of highly active users produce the vast majority of content.
  - nradov 1y ago
    That's junk science and doesn't refute the specific point I made. Facebook users are far more likely to post original content than X users. It might just be some blurry backlit vacation photos but it is original content.