Even with all the hype surrounding generative AI, its exact, optimal use still has yet to be discovered, at least in a Social Media context. Granted, generative AI is different from Social Media, being mostly aligned under the broader ‘tech’ umbrella.

With social platforms now playing a much more significant role in how we interact, social platforms will, logically, be seeking ways to plug into this generative AI shift to maximize engagement. So far, however, there are some rather average AI concepts within social apps. Snapchat came up with ‘My AI’ back in February, which allowed users to chat with an AI bot and perform more extensive queries in the app.

Dare To Dream

It was a big hit with users – for like, the first 10 minutes or so. Besides the whole chat with human-like bots, there are also some visual creation tools being developed for both TikTok and Instagram that’ll bring AI-based filters and selective creative tools. Again, a bit interesting, but nothing that hasn’t been introduced before.

Now, Snap’s working on another visual AI element, which it’s trying to dress up as something more innovative, by calling it ‘Dreams’. Shared by the ever-so-on-point app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Snap’s new ‘Dreams’ project will allow users to place their likeness into created realms powered by generative AI. Basically, it’s another text prompt-based AI creation tool with a different framing – it’s still the same reinvented wheel, just with a different description, roughly speaking.

In addition, text-based generative AI options are also making their way to social apps, like AI summaries and post creation options on LinkedIn. In a way, it does seem counterintuitive to what most people would want in a social app – that being real human connection – while both Meta and Twitter are also developing new generative AI elements that have yet to be revealed at this stage.

Now don’t misconstrue us, the latest batch of generative AI tools are amazing in their capacity to do things that are far beyond what was even thought possible at the same time last year. However, for all the hype, the practical use cases for these tools aren’t really as extensive as many have claimed them to be. Could AI soon be replacing you? In some cases, maybe, but in most, fields would still require (and benefit more from) people with working knowledge and expertise to ensure that the AI-generated outputs you get are correct and make sense. Because AI tools make things up a lot. You’d assume they’d improve this over time, but right now, the ‘hallucinations’ element, in a text sense, doesn’t reduce the workload for written content as much as you might think.

Visually speaking, there are some amazing opportunities, but, again, in most cases, they do look a bit off, while in many others, the challenge before people in creating visual content isn’t so much about creating the actual image, but in coming up with what to create in the first place. Given this, generative AI doesn’t solve the key problem of sparking creativity, even if it does provide more means to experiment and realize concepts.

The Wrap

In some ways, this means that the lack of mind-blowing generative AI options in social is pretty reflective of the broad trend – the technology is amazing, but the actual, practical applications are not as advanced, in most cases, contrary to the majority of reports.

There are many ways in which generative AI will play a significant role within workforce shifts, and they do open up all new opportunities, but it’s interesting to note that given the radical capability that these tools present, the best that social apps can come up with are tools that alter backgrounds and some gimmicky chat features. It’s too early to tell right now, but generative AI can potentially change the way we interact with technology in the future.

Sources

https://bit.ly/3N2glCW