In our world, warning labels are ubiquitous. These alerts have already made their way onto social media. This week, it was revealed that Meta owned Instagram may soon add a notification that will identify when AI has been used to create content on the platform. App researcher Alessandro Paluzzi shared the screenshot of an Instagram page that stated “the creator Meta said this content was edited or created by AI”.

TheVerge.com reported that the discovery of this AI warning tag comes just a few months after Meta along with Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other major AI actors including Google made commitments around responsible AI development to the White House.

AI could generate a lot of content, and these labels are crucial.

The AI shortcut is the shortest route. The technology helps create content, such as visuals or other media that people would not otherwise have time for.

Alert: AI Content

Now it is harder to tell when AI played a part in the creation of content. These labels would be an excellent first step to identifying whether AI was involved.

We view the move to a transparent media environment as extremely positive. While AI has revolutionizing potential, the ease of creation and dissemination of fake images and videos can deceive and manipulate public opinion quickly and on a large scale – they have the potential to completely erode trust in the news cycle and what the public perceives as true,” Eduardo Azanza, CEO of software verification firm Veridas, explained via an email.

Azanza noted that deep-fake images and videos have been used to abuse online users. It will be increasingly difficult to tell the difference between real and fake media as artificial intelligence improves.

The public will rely more on personal instinct if there is no label. Misinformation can spread faster. Azanza said that adding labels can increase transparency, and allow informed media consumption.

Are we about to see more AI labels?

Instagram is just the first social media platform to label that content has been generated by AI—but others could follow.

Rob Enderle is a technology analyst at the Enderle Group and believes that the success of Instagram’s move will be determined by their ability to reliably identify AI-generated material created by other people.

It is likely that as tools improve and become easier to use, the number of people who do it will decrease.

If AI generates more and more content, the labeling may become obsolete.

Enderle said that “this warning initially may provide users with peace of mind, and if this happens, then it could be sufficient to create similar warnings and distribute them until AI-generated material becomes more prevalent.”

However, even if AI is commonplace, human creators may seek to stand out—and thus the labels may still be a necessary evil.

Azanza stated that “if we want AI to be successfully integrated into our everyday lives, large and impactful companies must lead in aligning themselves with regulations and standards which ensure accountability and responsibility.” This will help us build the trust of the public in this technology, and make it work for the good.

Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, is known for using social media as a way to share his views with the public. Barack Obama, however, was the first candidate for president to use social media. It became clear that this could be a powerful tool in a presidential campaign. This fact was confirmed in 2016, when Trump’s team began to use carefully crafted messages on various platforms.

It is unclear if social media will still have an impact on the 2020 election. Twitter is a platform that has been used by both sides of the political spectrum for decades. Does it still hold any influence?

Aubrey Jewett, Associate Professor and Assistant School Director within the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs of Central Florida University, stated that “Social Media will play an essential role in 2024’s presidential election.”

Jewett pointed out that for many Americans social media is an important news source. He cited the Pew Research report that showed that over 70% of Americans get their news via social media.

Jewett added, “Candidates and campaigns will use social media advertising to target their messages precisely to those who are most responsive.” Disinformation campaigns are spreading through social media, despite attempts to stop. They may have an important impact. People often use social media to talk about politics and policies.

Social media can be a powerful tool to motivate voters, to ensure they cast their ballots, and both campaigns are likely going spend a large amount of money in these outreach efforts.

What about the spread of misinformation?

A danger is that the social media platforms could be used to “fool everyone, always,” at least through the spreading of misinformation.

Craig Barkacs, professor of business law and ethics in the MBA programs at the Knauss School of Business at the University of San Diego, warned that social media has become a prime pollutant in today’s political landscape, which is so littered with lies, deception, conspiracy theories, misinformation, and, even worse, disinformation – even as nearly three-quarters of Americans turn to it for a source of news.

Barkacs explained that headline-itis is a mental disorder whereby Americans are prone to glancing quickly at the shiny objects and moving onto the next one. The average article is read for 15 seconds and a video maybe 10 or less seconds, according to research. Pew Research Center also found in a study that people who rely on social media for their news are less politically aware and engaged than those who use other sources.

Even though minds can be changed

It is unlikely that those who are most involved in “flame-wars” online on Twitter or other platforms will change their mind, since the people who throw the fuel have already made their decision. It is still possible for opinions to change on controversial issues.

Some people might claim, “Hey! If you look at the vicious arguments that go back and forth on social media sites, nobody ever changes their mind.” This may hold true for both sides, but not for anyone who watches the arguments. If one side only appears, and is not challenged by anyone else, then the viewers will never be exposed to a counterargument.

It could be even more important to check the facts of statements by politicians before next year’s elections. Even more so, it could be important to prevent a campaign of disinformation that supporters of one candidate could mount to undercut the opposition.

The lies, conspiracy theories, and deception that are spread on social media need to be fought against. Disinformation and propaganda cannot be ignored. Barkacs said that vigilance is important and that the game of “whack-a-mole” cannot be stopped, no matter how frustrating it might be. Thomas Jefferson once said, “An informed electorate must be a pre-requisite to democracy.” Even though the social media is used often to spread misinformation, they can still be utilized to provide accurate information.

Social Media’s Changing Role

It should also be noted that both sides use social media to good success – so it is likely its role as a tool to reach voters in an election will only continue to evolve.

Jewett said that when social media became popular, Democrats seemed to have an edge because young voters were much more likely to be using new technologies like social media. Also, younger voters tend to lean Democratic. As time passed, however, the use of social media grew, with many boomers, seniors, and middle-aged people using it. In 2016, when Donald Trump was at the height of his popularity, he effectively used Twitter to market and recruit Republican voters.

It’s not yet clear which side has the advantage of social media in 2024.

Biden, who is older, hasn’t had a huge impact on social media. However, Democrats and Biden’s campaign are likely to increase their social media marketing. Biden will be able to use social media effectively to discredit his opponents and generate excitement if he faces Trump again, as it is highly likely.

We can also expect social media to play a part if a different GOP candidate wins the nomination. It could also include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He may need to make up lost ground.

Jewett added that “he will need to show that he is a social media expert, which has been largely absent from his tenure as governor. However, his team of campaigners will include many social media experts who worked in his past campaigns and governor’s offices.”

Attention Artificial Intelligence

The biggest question is not whether there will be another match between Biden & Trump but how AI could be used next year.

Jewett said that artificial intelligence would help to microtarget voters and respond faster to social media events.

He warned that the biggest impact could be the use of AI to present misinformation in unprecedented ways – both in terms of quality and quantity of advertisements as well as via faux news pieces.

The AI technology allows even those with only basic computer knowledge to easily create fake videos, pictures and audio that fools the general public and can be difficult to detect by digital experts. It’s scary to think that, in an election that is close, there may be clever ‘deepfakes’ which can damage one candidate or give their election opponent,” Jewett added.

Social media and AI could create messages that are more targeted than ever before.

Barkacs said that social media had infected politics whether they liked it or not.

Keep in mind the March 3rd, 2023 date.

It might be just another Friday on the calendar, but it’s actually the day a well-known social media company announced their own demise. It’s also the beginning of the end for all social media.

That’s right, March 3 is when LinkedIn announced a new “collaborative article” concept, which (if you follow AI trends and know how these things usually pan out) seems harmless enough at first. Prior to this, it was — a voicebot will always be available in your home or a robotic car will drive you to work. In the announcement, LinkedIn mentioned this innocuous phrase: “These articles begin as AI-powered conversation starters, developed with our editorial team.”

What’s really happening here? My guess is that LinkedIn is using AI to scan their own platform (what they claim is “10 billion years of professional experience”) to generate AI-created content. As humans, we’ll respond to these posts because they will be tailor-made to encourage a response and debate. We don’t know how these posts will get labeled. What’s clear is that there will be a plethora of AI-enabled content meant to encourage more engagement.

This semi-automated social network was described in a report. A darker perspective is my preference. Recently, I wrote about an AI chatbot posting to Twitter. Commenters often get confused as to whether it is powered by real humans or artificial intelligence. It’s a curious development. I’m in favor of AI helping us do our work. I’m not in favor of people thinking content created by a human is actually something cooked up by an AI, mostly because it means the entire experience will degrade, one post at a time. I’ve already experienced way more LinkedIn spam messaging of late, to the point where I now barely read any direct messages at all. AI spam is the last thing that I need.

This begs the question of where it all leads. Once AI starts controlling the algorithm and posting content to lure us into more discussions, it’s just a matter of time before more and more accounts that Click hereThese networks are being invaded by an AI-generated human face, and they also have a fake place. It is causing a complete disruption to our experience.

Think about how that might turn out.

You might log onto Facebook or LinkedIn and scroll through your news feed on a normal day. It’s easy to see a lot of lively discussions and comments. But it’s all a ruse. The social media platform has allowed and even enabled the AI accounts to create the discussions (and the comments), and they are geared for you — your interests and proclivities. Because social media networks have a good idea of your interests and habits, the chats will be appealing.

Instagram and TikTok have bots that can recognize which photos or videos you enjoy the most. However, without human interaction, this will only be an attempt to get your attention and to keep you on the app longer. It will also show ads tailored to your interests. Not to make it all sound too dire, but think of The Matrix and the moment Neo realized he was (spoiler alert for the five people who don’t know this) nothing more than a battery in a tube.

It will be almost like The Matrix when we all surround ourselves with AI bots that act as humans. They can look at content not created by humans but also see ads generated by algorithms. It will all seem fake. One of them will then have some value.

We owe Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg an apology. This could be the moment when we finally let go of social media and realize that it is all there to trap us into their ads. We should wake up and prevent that nightmare from happening.

Although recent history is not encouraging, Artificial Intelligence may be more practical in 2023.

Twitter is a popular topic for many reasons. Many have claimed that social media has gone extinct. We’re all a little bored with the idea it seems.

But, what I think can save Facebook and Twitter and all other social media apps is major augmentation that makes social media more sustainable and less boring.

That’s right, I’m talking about artificial intelligence.

Here’s a quick summary of what we’ve all experienced lately.

First, there’s the upright robots running in an open field and climbing stairs. We’re astounded by the incredible feats of engineering that appear so human-like — only to realize it isn’t actually AI. Many of the humanoid demonstrations can be controlled remotely via a human operator.

Amazon Alexa is being criticized for not generating any actual revenue lately. My own experience has been hit or miss lately; the bot sometimes doesn’t work and hasn’t really done anything new in years.

The reality is, those who hope the robot car revolution will happen in their lifetimes are disappointed.

Google, too, is caught up in the robot-funk. For a while, I supported the Google Assistant. My hope was that the voicebot could conduct interviews with us. A while back, I wrote about the possibility that digital avatars might attend our meetings.

The truth is, however, a little less fulfilling. Voice-activated bots are used to create reminders, listen to news and read recipes.

My disillusionment has even made me question my own breathless prognostications about AI changing the world, helping us do our jobs and performing mundane tasks so we don’t have to do them. I wasn’t really on board with the whole “AI worship” concept at the time, but one article started with a line that now seems unlikely, that robots will be smarter than us by 2042.

We are here, yet. There’s an indication that artificial intelligence may be dominant in an unusual place, with social media rising to the top at 2023.

ChatGPT was a great tool for me to create captions on social media. I admitted that I don’t plan to use them, since I prefer to craft the posts myself, but the captions do have viability. For social media managers who write posts all day long, scheduling product promotions or trying to connect with followers, ChatGPT is a useful tool with real-world implications, even if the developers don’t see it that way (they meant it purely as a beta test). That doesn’t mean we can’t get excited about it, though.

I’ve mentioned this before, but my view of professional, business-focused social media meant to promote a brand or a service hinges on two words: consistent quality. What I mean by that is, when you want to use social media for business purposes, don’t aim for a viral post. It is better to post consistently using quality images and great captions. Only those who are diligent win. Posting consistently, in an engaging manner, can help you build an audience and expose your brand to others. This will eventually lead to new customers.

ChatGPT shows how artificial intelligence can help everyone do this in 2023. It is possible to allow an AI to schedule posts. We can see it with apps like Sprout Social, which automatically finds the best time to post.

What I’m talking about is something far more advanced, though.

We’d ask a bot to promote a new product, with no other details. After finding the right apps and choosing the best times for posting, the bot will then choose the best photos, create captions, pick the best images, schedule the posts, and set the timer. We’d sit back and manage the analytics (although an AI could do that for us as well). The social media manager will be more like a market campaign advocate choosing which messages to spread and how they should be promoted.

For everyday posting, we’d ask a bot to maintain our Twitter feed. That’s all we’d have to say. It would review all of our posts since 2010, and then (rather quickly) decide what we should post. It would also be able to identify what we should post. Actually, it works.

It might be already happening in the laboratory or somewhere else; it will become mainstream in 2023. We’ve already seen how ChatGPT makes it possible. The next step is to give AI some broad challenges like “maintain my social” so we don’t have to do it.

Bots can do the majority of our detailed work. This will be a problem for advertisers. These advertisers aren’t selling any products to bots.

AI-enabled, social media will be available sooner than we think. AI will transform the way businesses use social media by 2023. Stay tuned.