Leveraging AI for Social Media: A Not-So-Dumb Idea with a Twist of Humor
“AI Social Media Users Are Not Always a Totally Dumb Idea”
“Bertrand Russell once described foolish opinions as those derived from ‘prejudice, authority, or imitation.’ How much of social media thrives on these! Yet amid the looping gifs and viral tweets, there are attempts to add a dusting of artificial intelligence to our digital outpourings,” begins an intriguing post on Wired.
Well, who’d have thought it — injecting AI into social media, like the proverbial square peg in a round hole. It would seem that scrolling endlessly through dancing cat GIFs, meme-carbon copies, and a storm of viral tweets wasn’t stimulating enough. The bored and the brave have taken the audacious plunge of charging all this digital bric-a-brac with a jolt of AI. Bring out the confetti, it’s dumb idea day!
Altruism be damned, isn’t that the typical reasoning for such actions? A golden gesture done under the guise of making social media, I don’t know, less vapid? Less frivolous? But then comes Greg Epstein from Harvard, the guy with the smarts everyone’s talking about, who of course says, “Hold my degree.”
Epstein, akin to a judicious prophet, declares, “There is a real need right now for social media companies to take more seriously the idea that users want their feeds to show them things that make them feel good, but also help them understand and navigate reality.” Ya think, Epstein? Was the sneaking suspicion of users’ copious discontent with mindless feed-scrolling your first hint?
Perhaps it’s the polite way of saying ‘we’re swimming in a sea of digital junk,’ or maybe it’s just pointing out that decision-making algorithms could use a makeover. And who better to throw in the blender than our friendly, omnipotent AI? Wow, someone’s been paying attention in Mad Science 101.
Now, let’s roll out the red carpet for the main event — featuring AI venturing on its Save-The-World tour. Enter the LIT (Learning Through Information Toolkit) system. No, it doesn’t teach people how to get ‘lit’ at parties, it’s more about contextualizing tweets and catching that ever-elusive sentiment.
As much as it may sound like a delirious science project dreamt up during the middle of a caffeine-fueled coding marathon, it does have that certain ‘je ne sais quoi’. It’s whipping up a fair stir in the tech space, with some optimistic folks genuinely believing it could be the ketchup to the cold, hard fries of social media – giving flavor where it’s utterly devoid.
Well, there you have it, folks! The bold mission to sprinkle AI atop the monstrous social media sundae! Seems like a move designed to move the spotlight away from Russell’s musings of foolishness, and create something a little smarter from the vast digital landscape.
Brace yourselves, the AI Revolution-to-make-Social-Media-sensible is loading…