Meta has absolutely no clue what to do with AI

Meta has managed to cause controversy with its AI push yet again, after Instagram started showing users AI-generated pictures of themselves in their feeds.

Shortly after redditor u/Green_Video_9831 used Meta AI to edit a selfie with Instagram’s 'Imagine Me' feature, he was startled to find his own face staring back at him from an AI-generated hall of mirrors in a targeted post on his feed. It seems that the company that recently brought you fake Instagram profiles, and fake Facebook chatbots of fake celebrities is now crossing new frontiers by bringing you a fake… you. When it was posted to the subreddit r/ABoringDystopia, the story quickly went viral, with users piling on scorn and disgust.

When I saw this story, I was alarmed by the revolting tackiness of it all, but I wasn’t surprised. A very clear pattern has emerged in Meta’s behaviour – the company is going all-in on AI, but has no real idea what to do with it, what users want from it, or – crucially – how to make any money off it. But the war to be the best social media platform grinds on, shareholders demand their quarterly treats, and AI is still the hottest buzzword on the block. So, Meta is jamming AI into everything, throwing it all at the wall in the desperate hope that something, anything, manages to stick.

I might be wrong, and if that’s the case then I encourage Mark Zuckerberg to come down here and community note my ass. But I don’t think I am. There’s a cycle that’s been playing out for literal years at this point:

1. Meta announces a big, splashy new AI feature

2. Users either revolt, make fun of it, or simply ignore it.

3. Meta quietly retires the feature.

4. Go to 1.

By far the biggest boondoggle so far has been the aforementioned celebrity AI chatbots. I wouldn’t blame you if you’ve already forgotten about it, so here’s a refresher. In late 2023, Meta announced that it would be bringing a host of AI assistant chatbots featuring various famous faces. Users would be able to have their questions answered by the likes of Snoop Dogg, MrBeast, Paris Hilton, Kendall Jenner and more. And where are they now, you ask? The whole thing was a disaster, users hated it, and the chatbots were boxed within less than a year. I never even saw them, because they were nixed before launching in the UK.

It’s easy just to dismiss this whole sorry episode as another of Meta’s silly failed ventures – another Metaverse fashion week. But just think for a moment about how much it must have cost. One thing that unites Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, MrBeast and Kendall Jenner is that while they can be bought easily, they cannot be bought cheaply. And there were twenty-eight such celebs in this thing! Even at the most conservative estimates, it must have cost tens of millions, for absolutely zero return.

I confidently predict that this latest feature – the ‘Imagined for You’ selfies that put u/Green_Video_9831 into a hall of mirrors – is going to go the exact same way. I’m not blind to the cute novelty factor of it – I’m sure you can imagine yourself enjoying seeing a pretty realistic-looking photo of yourself on the surface of Mars or in Blade Runner or whatever. But can you imagine yourself enjoying that more than once or twice? Can you imagine enjoying that on a regular enough basis that it significantly juices Meta’s engagement metrics? Can you imagine yourself paying for it?

Even when you’re not paying Snoop Dogg money, generative AI is not a cheap technology. Those godawful fake Instagram profiles (remember Liv, the "proud Black queer momma of 2 & truth-teller”?) were not cheap to make, none of it is, and I firmly believe that Meta has no path to profitability with this stuff. If this all feels like a flailing tech giant desperately seeking to stay on top of the pile by burning money to over-leverage on underdeveloped technology that can’t really do the things they’re saying it can do – well, that’s because it is.

And sure, Meta has a lot of money to burn. But nothing is infinite. At some point, they're going to hit the limits of what they can spend on this stuff without making any return. What comes after that? I don't know! I don't think Meta knows either, and I think the company is really, really hoping that it doesn't have to find out.

Still, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe in six months’ time we’ll all be Imagining Ourselves in halls of mirrors all day and all night. Indeed, it’s entirely possible that Meta knows exactly what it is doing with AI and is just about to announce the one killer AI app that everybody simply has to have. I’m sure that’s just around the corner – but for now, I’m off to jack into the metaverse (now with legs) and check on the value of my Instagram NFT. I’m sure they’re both doing great.