Soon people discovered that Meta’s ghoulish posters had been among us for months, even years. There’s Liv, a “Proud black queer momma of 2 & truth-teller,” according to its Instagram profile. Add to that Brian, “everybody’s grandpa;” Jade, “your girl for all things hip-hop;” and Carter, a “relationship coach.” I’m sure there are more yet to be discovered.
All four of these posters have pages on both Facebook and Instagram with mirrored content and all four have post histories that go back to September 26, 2023. The accounts have the blue verified check marks and a label indicating that they’re an AI “managed by Meta.” Users can block them on Facebook, but not on Instagram. Users can also message them across all of Meta’s platforms, including WhatsApp.
All the ones I’ve seen so far are minorities. This is fucking blackface.
I can’t wait for the AI to reach this level of peak comedy
So brave, as a white man, to speak out as a black woman.
It is so much worse. Humanfacing
Those apps are legitimately dead. They just haven’t caught up yet.
This is some legit dystopian shit right here. I almost wish I hadn’t abandoned these platforms years ago, so that I could take this opportunity to do it. I hope that more people wake up to the insidious nature of this company and these services.
Pretty good article, this stood out for me:
Something about George Romero’s 1978 film about doomed survivors riding out the zombie apocalypse in a shopping mall feels resonant today as I look across Meta’s suite of AI-created profiles. The movie’s blue-skinned corpses don’t know they’re dead. They just wander through the shopping center on autopilot, looking for something new to consume.
That’s how many of our social media spaces feel now. Digital town squares populated by undead posters, zombies spouting lines they learned from an LLM, the digested material from decades of the internet spewed back at the audience. That’s what Meta is selling now.
This all really feels like a desperate attempt to save their dying social networks, just filling their sites with garbage to make it look like they’re not declining
The best part is no one is going to leave the platform over this except a small minority of nerds like us. The average person is addicted to social media. Ain’t nothing going to drive them away.
Not even all of us. If I left the platform, I would lose all contact with a significant proportion of my not very large family, who are spread across the globe. I don’t really have another good option if I want to be able to keep in touch with all of them. Incidentally, that includes my own brother.
I do make sure to curate my experience with every meagre tool they give me to do so, however. That’s the best I can do.
Heard that. I hear people complaining about being forced to use WhatsApp to keep in touch with “boomer relatives.” Man I wish WhatsApp was the worse tool I was compelled to keep an account on.
Right. I have relatives in multiple parts of both the U.S. and the U.K. along with Australia and New Zealand. I wish I had another way to keep in touch with them, but I just don’t.
Edit: forgot the ones in Canada and Granada.
Damnn are you folks trying to infiltrate every Commonwealth country or what? Impressive spread you got there.
A lot of the family got the fuck out of Europe after WWII because we’re Jews. But being Jews, we decided to get as far away from each other as possible too.
Haha I’m not familiar with that stereotype, but that’s understandable. My family is full of more of the out-of-sight out-of-mind types.
Apologies on my “infiltrate” joke. I meant it in like an anti establishment way rather than an antisemitic way!
I didn’t think of it that way, no worries.
You’ve heard of the Dead Internet Theory, now get ready for the UNDEAD Internet Theory!
how are advertisers ok with this?
Does it make them money?
If yes, then they’re ok with pretty much anything.
How does it make them money?
Does it make them money? Or is this a bubble?
This is great. If it keeps up my remaining family on FB will give up and I can finally delete my stagnant account.
The idea of random AI floating about to soothe people and give them attention is damn creepy. Ew.
Fuck AI.
That’s what the world was missing, NPCs.
I just wish they were interesting NPCs.
Hey, take what you can get.
I’ll take the guy that says “Welcome to Corneria”. He may not have much to say, but he sounds more sincere at least.
Welcome to Corneria
I like swords.
8-bit theater joke, sorry
I was, of course, refering to the actual Final Fantasy NPC.
not really, that was 100% 8-bit theater too
Wow that’s horrifying. Hilarious and horrifying.
