Raphael ThysToo much power in the wrong hands
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Published in
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3 min read
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2 hours ago
IMAGE: Sibillino — Pixabay
The more I see of Meta’s developments in artificial intelligence and, in particular, generative algorithms, the more convinced I am that we have a serious problem.
In case anybody needs reminding, this is without question the most irresponsible company in the recent history of technology, with scandals to its credit ranging from electoral interference in multiple countries, to a genocide. What’s more, after failing miserably in its attempt to appropriate the term “metaverse” in an attempt to sell us a closed and proprietary platform on which very few companies considered developing anything, it thinks it has learned its lesson and is being economical with the truth by trying to pass off its LLAMA generative algorithm as if it was open source.
What’s more, its recent Meta Connect presentation points to the creation of generative characters that users will interact with, going way beyond Siri, Alexa and the like, and instead based on celebrities such as Charli D’Amelio, Dwyane Wade, Kendall Jenner, MrBeast, Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady, or Paris Hilton, that can behave as our “friends”.
In short, this would be a synthetic social network, which is hardly new: we have probably all had at some time “virtual friends” on an online service, as well as many more “imaginary friends” in the form of profiles created in some bot factory in a country with low unit labor costs. But now, with the advent of generative algorithms capable of taking these personalities to reasonably credible extremes, it could, in the hands of a company without any hint of ethics like Meta, become a problem.
In other words, the idea is to addict people by hooking them up with their favorite personality by giving them‘personalized’ attention 24×7, and who also sells them stuff. These models can evolve into buddies with personality traits, providing emotional support, coaching, mentoring, or therapy, which would appeal to lonely or isolated people. Frankly, the idea of Meta providing this kind of service fills me with dread: it would be the perfect way to position its advertisers with synthetic brand ambassadors with unparalleled influence.
It’s not hard to see where this could go in the hands of an unscrupulous character like Marc Zuckerberg: avatars pretending to be real personalities capable not only of…