Get ready for the next wave of AI generated content, with Meta unveiling its latest video generation tool, called “Movie Gen”, which will soon be available in its apps.
Yes, you’ll soon be able to create your own videos of baby hippos, or actors eating spaghetti, or whatever you like, which you’ll then be able to share to your feed.
Or, like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, you’ll be able to depict yourself in unreal situations.
So it won’t just be able to create all new, HD videos based on text prompts., but Movie Gen will also be able to build upon your actual videos. So it’ll actually be you in them, even if the elements surrounding you are not real.
So, cool, right? Meta’s got yet another way to integrate generative AI, which will expand your creative capacity.
But really, I just don’t see it being a big hit.
The whole concept of social media is built upon being social, and engaging with friends, family, and fans, by sharing your own experiences and creations. This is neither of those things.
These are not your actual experiences, but computer depictions of things that are not real, while these also aren’t your creations, they’re the outputs of a machine learning system, trained on other people’s creativity and posts.
Is that really what people want? Do you really want to be posting images and video of yourself as an astronaut, which you just made up by typing in a text prompt? Is that engaging, or even interesting?
My question with all of these gen AI elements is what value do they actually provide within the broader experiences of social media apps. They’re interesting, for sure, and as a novelty, they’ll no doubt get attention. And as a technological achievement, what you can now do with these tools is also amazing, but most of these experiences don’t seem to bridge the gap between technological advancement and actual utility.
Meta’s also tried this with AI chatbots in Messenger, which no one really cared about, then AI chatbots based on celebrities, which it canceled back in July. Because no one used them, because they’re not engaging, because who cares if a chatbot answers in the style of Kendall Jenner when it’s not actually Kendall Jenner?
That’s not social, and not in line with the expectations for social apps, yet Meta seems determined that people will really like these engineered experiences if they give them a chance.
Which is why it’s also working on video-based AI bots, that’ll be able to simulate engagement with creators and celebrities.
But again, that’s not social, these are not human-centered experiences, these are technological replacements for actual interaction, that Meta seems determined will eventually replace the current social media experience.
But will it?
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to think so:
“Every part of what we do is going to get changed in some way [by AI]. [For example] feeds are going to go from – you know, it was already friend content, and now it’s largely creators. In the future, a lot of it is going to be AI generated.”
A lot of your social feed is going to be AI generated, which is why Meta’s looking to give people more tools to facilitate exactly that. But is that really what people want?
I don’t know, maybe I’m missing the point, but it feels like all of these tools are interesting, and will lead to some interesting experimentation. But for the majority of users, these are just novelties, that’ll wear off pretty quick.
There are practical uses for such, like AI characters that can sell your products in live streams, AI content creation options to enhance your social posts, and there will, eventually, be a lot more ways in which gen AI will empower more people to create in all new forms.
But again, right now, the gulf between tech advancement and practical use remains distant.
