Are you sick of posting updates to social media platforms only to get zero response?
This could be the answer, with a new platform entirely populated by AI bots, which will each reply to your updates with relevant, contextual replies and info.
The new app, called SocialAI, is filled with “millions of AI followers”, all of which are waiting on your updates, and will be able to respond thoughtfully to your queries and questions.
Well, “thoughtfully” may not be the right term, as there’s no actual thought going on here. SocialAI is essentially ChatGPT social, with the many bot profiles built around different personality traits, and designed to reply to your updates based on that programming.
So, as you can see in this example, “Debate Diva” is programmed to question your thought, “Practical Patty” will provide logical answers, “Elena Bookworm” will give you some philosophical quandary to consider, etc.
Which is weird, but also oddly compelling, given the varying responses to your updates. And who doesn’t like getting a lot of replies, even if it is from bots?
Because let’s face it, a lot of social media interaction is likely bots already anyway, so maybe, then, AI social is the next stage, which will help to address the loneliness epidemic. There are already various examples of people using ChatGPT as a sounding board, by posing questions to it as they would another person, and maybe then, SocialAI is just the natural, logical extension of the same.
Heck, even Mark Zuckerberg has said that he expects most social feeds to be filled with AI-generated content in the near future, which includes engagement like this. So while it’s obviously less human, and less “social”, at least in the traditional context of that term, maybe SocialAI is simply ahead of the game, and this is the future of all social apps.
The new app was created by Michael Sayman, the wunderkind who’s been building hit apps since he was 17.
Sayman initially rose to fame after creating several games that gained traction, especially with teens, which then lead to Sayman joining Meta as its ’teen-in-residence’ back in 2014. Sayman played a role in the initial development of Instagram Stories, before moving on to Google to work on gaming projects, then Roblox for a short stint.
In 2022, Sayman joined Twitter, but left shortly after amid the Elon Musk takeover shift.
But now Sayman is back with an app that he says he’s been contemplating for some time.
“I’ve spent years wanting to build a consumer app that was impossible for a long time. Now the tech has finally caught up to my vision.”
And again, there is something to it, and you can see how there will be value for at least some users in getting AI responses, even if it is essentially just you talking with bot friends.
Could that facilitate real relationships, and real feelings of engagement, even if it is just with automated responders?
Various academic studies have concluded that generative AI can indeed replace many aspects of actual human relationships. Though researchers are also advising caution on this front, as avoiding real human interaction can have broader impacts on mental health, while creating emotional bonds with fictitious, corporate controlled entities could also have wider implications and impacts.
So in some ways, it seems like an interesting solution to a rising concern, in ensuring that more people feel seen and heard, while also providing them with the mental stimulation of ongoing engagement. But then again, if that leads to a broader retreat from the real world, the effects of that at scale are unknown, and could potentially lead to even worse outcomes in the longer term.
Right now, however, it’s one of the more interesting experiments in AI engagement, even if I do have trouble calling it a “social” app. I mean, it’s social, but not with real people, and that’s not really the same as the foundational premise of what “social media” as a concept was built upon.
But maybe, that’s just an outdated notion of what the term’s going to mean to the next generation, who’ll to grow up posing questions to bots, just like they would a real person.
In that sense, maybe this is the future. Whether you like it or not.
