Instagram is using AI

Question

Instagram is allowing their users to create their own AI-powered chatbots and put them in their profiles. They're doing this to attempt at further make a push towards their company's AI software into it's most popular consumer products. The feature they're using is called AI studio, which lets the creators with professional, verified accounts make custom AI chatbots that can impersonate as their themself and answer simple, common responses sent from their followers or fans. These inclusive users also have the choice of deciding what kind of questions that they want them to answer, and which topics/questions they want them to avoid. (Time magazine) This article explain Meta’s official launch of AI Studio, its functionalities, and rollout timeline. Clips or transcripts from Zuckerberg’s talk show Meta’s focus on integrating AI into its platforms. (TIME ) . Their bias's for the claim are from corporate self-promotion. That Meta has a strong incentive to present AI Studio positively and downplay potential risks or shortcomings. Meta’s official announcements confirm the launch of AI Studio. Multiple news outlets report the same information, citing Meta directly Meta’s ongoing deployment of its AI chatbot across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook supports the claim that the company is scaling AI features.

Answer 1

This statement is true. Instagram uses AI systems to decide what contents appears, informed by the choices people make so that they experience something unique and personalized to them. They also use AI to help make decisions about content, for example it can recognize what's in a photo or analyze the text of a post. The AI may then determine whether to take action on the content, such as removing it from the platform or reducing its distribution. Instagram has actually been using AI since 2010, their AI-powered image filters laid the ground work for more sophisticated AI applications in the future. There is now a chat with AI option in the search bar. This provides a more dynamic and intuitive experience than standard keyword-based searches. 

https://help.instagram.com/423837189385631 

https://aimmediahouse.com/market-industry/instagram-and-ai-is-it-a-good-mix

Answer 2

This is true; Instagram does use AI. On Instagram's Help Center Page, it states, "Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is central to our content review process." They use AI to review which content is allowed to be put out and what content cannot be posted. Instagram also uses AI features that can be seen and used on your own account, such as direct messaging with an AI character. Meta also claims that Instagram uses AI to determine and personalize your Explore page, a page featuring suggested content tailored to each individual. In conclusion, Instagram utilizes AI in various ways and may continue to develop AI features.

Comments

It’s definitely true that Instagram uses AI. What stood out to me, though, is how Instagram explains the whole process like it’s simple when it’s really not. They talk about AI detecting harmful content and sending “borderline” stuff to human reviewers, but they don’t say anything about how often the AI gets things wrong or how consistent those human decisions actually are.

It doesn’t take away from your point tho.. Instagram is absolutely using AI everywhere, but the Help Center only gives the clean version. There’s a lot happening behind the scenes that they don’t really get into, especially around bias and how much power the AI actually has in deciding what people see.

Answer 3

The claim that “Instagram is using AI” has been proven true by multiple trustworthy sites. Instagram is known to use META which is an artificial intelligence assistant. The AI Tools help recommend content to users, and can also make decisions about the content that is posted. Essentially “AI teams start by building machine learning models that can do things like recognize what’s in a photo or analyze the text of a post. For example, AI models may be built to learn whether a piece of content contains nudity or graphic content. Those models may then determine whether to take action on the content, such as removing it from the platform or reducing its distribution,” (Instagram). 

The platform depends on AI technology for all its operations which determine how users experience Instagram. The platform maintains safety through AI content moderation which examines all user-generated content including posts and captions and messages. The platform uses AI to determine user feed content and to recommend Explore page posts and to deliver targeted advertisements through interest and behavioral data. The AI system at Instagram performs three main functions which include content classification and trend recommendation and visual effect and filter generation from images and videos. The system provides users with convenient features and creative tools but users need to manage privacy risks and data management issues and deal with problems from algorithmic decision-making. The platform operates through AI technology which improves AR features and creates enhanced content filtering and personalized recommendation tools (Chiapanni).

A main thing that Instagram uses AI for is also target advertising. This is beneficial to the platform, and also its users because “by assessing the search preferences and engagement insights from its users, Instagram can sell advertising to companies who want to reach that particular customer profile and who might be most interested in receiving a particular marketing message. Since Facebook with 1.8 billion users owns Instagram they have a powerful network of analytics information to help target advertising based on what people like, who they follow and interact with and what they save,” (Marr). Just because Instagram uses AI doesn’t necessarily mean it's a negative. The platform operates through AI technology which does not have built in dangers but its results depend on user application methods and their ability to manage it.

References: 

https://help.instagram.com/423837189385631 

https://bernardmarr.com/the-amazing-ways-instagram-uses-big-data-and-artificial-intelligence/ 

https://www.ki-company.ai/en/blog-beitraege/instagram-ai-how-much-ai-is-in-instagram

Answer 4

This statement is very much true. Meta’s creation of AI Studio on Instagram is backed up by Meta’s own announcement, which confirms that creators with professional accounts can build AI chatbots that act as extensions of themselves. TIME also reports that these AI bots show up directly on creator profiles and are part of Meta’s bigger push to spread AI across Instagram. Times Now News and Social Media Today say the same thing, showing that AI Studio lets influencers create AI versions of themselves and that the rollout is currently limited to the U.S.

What stands out across all these sources is how much the information comes from Meta themselves. They’re promoting AI Studio as this innovative, creator friendly tool, but they don’t really address the risks, especially around impersonation or how these bots might blur the line between real and AI generated interactions. Everything we know is basically filtered through Meta’s own framing, which fits their larger plan of pushing AI onto multiple platforms. AI in general is a dangerous thing to work with, especially with how its affecting our society (pollution, mixed reviews from the public, etc.)

Meta Newsroom: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/07/create-your-own-custom-ai-with-ai-studio/
TIME: https://time.com/7005238/meta-custom-ai-chatbot-instagram-professional-users-profile/
Times Now: https://www.timesnownews.com/technology-science/meta-opens-ai-studio-for-users-to-create-ai-profiles-on-instagram-and-web-article-112123620
Social Media Today: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-enable-influencers-create-ai-versions-themselves/720114

Comments

I agree with your point about, that most of "the information comes from Meta themselves". This it was a very good observation, because it's important to underline the risks around this movement. What I will give you is an advice for next time: be sure that your links work, to prove your work. The first 2 of them I couldn't access. Besides that, a claim that I was thinking that is very interesting in the Social Media Today article is "But expanding into other areas seems inherently deceptive, and also, counter to the entire focus of “social” media platforms."  As you said I agree with you that they presented the ideas, but not the risks that they come with this change in the app.