Facebook Moves To Community Notes
Along with AI profiles, no customer service, no fact-checkers, no shirt, no shoes, no service
Maybe fifteen years ago, I was at ConDor, the San Diego, CA-area science fiction convention. As usual, I was the only female on an all-male sci-fi author and academic panel.
I was sitting next to Vernor Vinge, the brilliant mathematician and originator of the concept of the technological “Singularity.”
I didn’t know Vernor well, but he was one of the few men in his position who not only always treated me respectfully and decently, he conversed with me as if I was his social and intellectual equal.
The discussion had turned to human interstellar space travel. I certainly had said nothing — opportunities for chat via these events for people like me are limited — but Vernor turned to me and whispered, “I think it would take about half of the gross global product to achieve interstellar travel.”
I was only beginning my business development work at that time, but I thought, “Even if it’s half of the global economic output, this still can’t completely exclude everyone except white European or North American men.”
Vernor died last March. I think he had a life very well-lived, and he was certainly one of the most brilliant men I’ve ever known.
A careful, measured, yet always fair-minded and wide-ranging thinker.
But what does Vernor and his profound sci-fi insights have to do with Facebook?
AI. The Singularity.
Right now, large percentages of gross global product appear to be going into the personal accounts of men like Mark Zuckerberg.
Not even SpaceX, not even Blue Origin. Zuckerberg apparently had his own space project: it ceased last year due to “lack of funding.”
The Singularity And You
Open AI’s Sam Altman has famously stated he thinks the “Singularity” is upon us. In human terms, the technological singularity refers to a point in time where everyone born after that point will be fundamentally different from those born before it — due to the way technology will impact our lives.
But wait! This is about Facebook!
Yes. Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday that Facebook would no longer be employing independent human “fact checkers” to combat the “fake news” problem. Instead, the social media giant would use a system similar to X’s community notes, where users provide references and context on various posts, images, videos, and assertions. The community note system on X is well-established. Here’s a brief explanation of how it works.
Additionally, Zuckerberg announced, Facebook would be using AI to perform most fact-checking and content moderation duties.
Only one week earlier, Zuckerberg had drawn attention to Meta’s intent to increase the number of AI accounts interacting with the general public. Some AI “personality” accounts had been available since 2023.
Within only a few days, public objections and criticism of the unsophisticated, problematic AI accounts forced the company to shut them down.
Grandpa Brian, pictured above on the left, had this conversation with a human:
I’ve told people before: AI is a mirror. It’s not more intelligent than people, it’s not original, it does not “think” in a way that humans recognize as cognition, and by its nature, it will show things that most people would rather not be seen.
Awkward sentences. Stereotyped language. Picking up on subtle language cues, but usually, not in an appropriate way. Grandpa Brian’s chat is typical of how a “helpful” AI will respond to what it thinks its being asked.
Was “Grandpa Brian” telling the user the truth?
Grandpa Brian was telling the user what it thought they wanted to hear, based on the language cues provided.
There are so many questions here, and in my mind, they point at the reality of the “AI Revolution,” the Singularity that Vernor Vinge envisioned (and not in a particularly positive way unless you realize that humans are part of nature, not above it or beyond it), and the economic, personal, and environmental exploitation which is the hallmark of nearly all tech and digital business — but most especially —Facebook.
Why were Meta’s AI accounts stereotypically “racially diverse”? Why would a fake Black grandpa and grandma (Liv) be designed? Why is Carter a young Asian man (he was apparently supposed to be a dating coach)?
People already have a hard enough time communicating with other humans via Facebook and Instagram, and don’t need extra help to be confused as to whether or not they’re looking at a real photo, conversing with a human, or wasting time with pointless bullshit.
Aren’t there sufficient living humans to interact via social media — why would it be desirable, or even necessary, to invent such personas?
Nearly half of the people alive on the globe use one of Meta’s products daily. Over 77% of all internet users globally use one of Meta’s products each and every day.
And the best Meta, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, can do — is develop stupid, unsophisticated, non-relevant, and pathetic AI “personas” like Grandpa Brian, Gay Grammy Liv, and Clark the dating coach.
What Does It All Mean?
The people who think Meta needs AI personas to interact with humans as some form of “social contact” for whatever purpose (usually to ‘sell’ something, whether goods, memberships, or above all — ideas) is a good idea —
Are on the “before” side of the tech Singularity. I can see the after side of it, and I hope you can, too.
Nothing is going to save Facebook — a platform that makes MySpace look like a forward-thinking innovator destined to last forever. Fish do rot from the head.
Facebook, Meta — Zuckerberg himself — the man using false pretenses to buy up half of one of the most beautiful islands in the world so he can surf Kauai’s waves in privacy, may have used technology to get this rich.
They — and he — are operating out of tired old playbooks that couldn’t reach space or a healthy, happy future with the use of all Global Gross Product for ten million lifetimes.
If AI accomplishes anything, it will be to show one and all the reality of the world we live in, with all of its warts, foibles, flaws, and weaknesses. So we can start to work on them, one by one.
This is a sick world and it needs to heal. The world itself? Absolutely will heal no matter what. Anyone who thinks human activities can destroy the planet itself have been watching too many movies like The Core.
The second the power goes off, poof!
AI problem: solved. But that’s not what we’re talking about at all.
We’re talking about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. If anybody thinks those things can’t or won’t be changed and will be around forever … well, maybe you think Grandpa Brian and Granny Liv are real people, too.
On point: https://indi.ca/babel-come-down/
"AI is neither." This is the opinion of a prominent AI researcher (I can't say any more than that.)
"AI" is a last gasp of several things, but topmost is aging old white men who can't accept their mortality. We aren't ever traveling to other star systems, and most likely we won't even return to the Moon. Computers will never have human cognition, though they can provide a low-quality impersonation for the gullible. These old white guys believe they are smarter than they really are, when the reality is that they are deeply flawed humans who believe their own lies.