The latest innovation in generative AI has exposed a whole new spectrum of possibilities and potential use cases. But are we even sure that there is anything of value to them within social media apps?

Yes, sure; there are some helpful practical use cases, like the editing of images for background ad usage and the optimizing of ad copy for myriad purposes.

But does this generative AI really benefit the regular user experience for the social apps?

People have complained for years about spam messages in their DMs, spam comments that link through to garbage websites, and artificial engagement from anniversary and birthday updates. These sorts of posts are untrustworthy and non-engaging and add little value to the idea of a "social" experience.

Yet now, with Gen AI, social apps are trying to make such even more prominent, with almost every platform now experimenting with different forms of automated content generation, which can then be used as updates that humans can then post to their profiles, cosplaying actual engagement.

Is that a good thing?

To place things into context, here's a rundown of the state of generative AI in the primary social apps:

Facebook offers features that include generative AI for ads in text and images, celebrity-based AI chatbots, an AI assistant through Messenger, generative AI for stickers, an AI chat assistant through Ray Ban Stories, and generative AI profile pictures.
Instagram has features, which include generative AI background generation tools and generative AI image filters; plus AI creation and editing tools. The company also runs a test for the first conversational AI for direct messages.
LinkedIn features an AI post composer, an AI assistant for InMails, AI article summaries, generative AI tools that can write your profile for you, and job ads suggestions, among others within its Recruiter and ad options.
Snapchat features "My AI" conversational chatbot, its "Dreams" image generation tool,, along with AI-generated Snap captions (for paying subscribers), and "AI Mode" for creating generative AI Snaps.
TikTok has profile images that are AI pictures, AI effects tools and AI song generation, while still experimenting with conversational search, powered by AI; text-to-video generation as well as an integrated experience of a chatbot.
Pinterest is using generative AI, at this juncture, to mostly power its back-end search and ad tools.
X owner Elon Musk says X's "Grok" AI chatbot will soon be able to make in-app updates for you, while also exploring visual generation via the tool.
Most of these tools are built to emulate human updates and create unbelievable images and depictions. And already there is a heap of options available which, though unwittingly so, significantly diminish, if not nullify, human input in the process.

Why would people want that? Why would they want to post robot responses, and try to make those robot responses seem like their thoughts and opinions?

And even if creators find value there, what about the consumers of such updates?

Spam and scam probably can't wait, nor will engagement farmers be excited about optimizing their updates through these applications. Are those the kinds of posts that actually contribute to social media interaction, though?

Of course, that's apparently a secondary consideration because now, you can create a profile picture of yourself as an 18th century warrior. Isn't that cool?

Sure, that is pretty cool as a novelty. But before long, how many generative AI images can you conjure up to illustrate yourself in various scenarios before you start to feel you are not actually doing any of those things?

Social media, by definition, is "social," which means it involves humans connecting to other humans, their own experiences, and the things that are filtering through their actual human brains, so then to feel more connected to the world surrounding them. That's been the universal value of the medium, building on books and movies to bring along a greater understanding and connectedness so we all can feel less alone, and more engaged with the world around us.

How does bot updates help with that?

And of course, this is all, inevitably, going to get a lot worse yet.
Indeed, last week, LinkedIn noted that it's re-building its foundations around AI, in order to power "the next ten years of product development and innovation." Which means more AI integration, and more bot-generated content. And as these tools continue to iterate on the latest trends, in order maintain relevance, they'll also be training on more and more AI-generated updates that are flowing through their circuits.

That is to say, AI tools will increasingly be fed by AI responses, washing out more and more human input from the process with every refresh.

The "social" part is becoming more mechanized, stale, and less human with every such integration.

Of course, on the other hand, the counter is that anyway, people can already use these AI tools outside of the social apps; whether they are embedded or not, they'll use them for the same purposes. Which is kind of true, but still, by adding them in-stream and making it easier to have people just tap on the button to generate response seems to be a move in the wrong direction either way.

That's not to say that Gen AI tools don't have their uses. There are, after all, practical use cases for optimized, simplified tools that could provide useful complementarity to human creation.

But bleaching humanity out of the source code is simply not a pathway to value.

And whether we realize it or not, the Gen AI shift is going to take far more significant turns yet.