Meta Launched Generative A.I. to Everyone. Overnight.
A.I. skipped the early adopter phase and is now baked into the most popular social platforms in the world.
This week’s edition was written to my Q1 2024 playlist, which continues my tradition of tagging songs I’m super into day-to-day into a quarterly playlist to share with you here. And I made a sweet generative A.I. cover of a drive-thru Lincoln Memorial, so there’s that.
Hey Social Signals subscribers! On Sunday morning last weekend, I found myself with two free hours to walk the halls of the Minneapolis Institute of Art completely alone. In fact, there were almost no docents patrolling the galleries, and I had a lot of time to think, “Could A.I. have made this?” and “What will this museum look like in 100 years with the advent of generative A.I.?” all by myself. Things got a little deep.
And then I found myself in front of The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover by Grant Wood, with its stunning, unique sense of style, shapes, and shadows. I thought to myself, “Wood would have had a lot of fun teaching A.I. how he saw the world and seeing what he could coax out of the medium — just as he did with paint.”
And that was my takeaway from the morning, which is good because A.I. skipped the early adopter phase this week and is now baked into the most popular social platforms in the world. More on that in this issue.
Thanks, as always, for your readership, engagement, and support. It means a ton. -Greg
Meta Pushes Generative A.I. to Everyone. Overnight.
This is kind of a big signal. Did you notice?
This week your Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp apps updated to include Meta’s AI Assistant directly in the search box (and even the feeds).
CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls it "the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use,” and I think it’s FASCINATING that Zuck and the Meta team turned this on within the apps’ search boxes so everyday people suddenly have instant access to generative AI without 1) seeking it out, 2) leaving the platform, or 3) signing up for something.
Here are screenshots from my own Facebook, Messenger, Insta, and WhatsApp:
There’s a broader story here about A.I. agents and how they are diving into Groups and discussions and confusing users already in the first week (read more here) and how you can access Meta A.I. without being signed into their ecosystem (read more here), but I want to focus on the signal at hand.
Meta hard launched generative A.I. to millions of people within apps they use everyday, and I’m not sure anyone really noticed. It didn’t lead the news. Everyone kind of shrugged. It was kind of annoying actually.
But I bet people were trying generative A.I. for the first time this week. And forming opinions.
I will tell you that I had a friend who had been skeptical of trying generative AI immediately try it because it was so easy to try and experiment with just right there in the app. And it wasn’t great because he needed to change the prompt, but who will help teach him that? He’s probably thinking, “So much for intelligence,” when really the onboarding and education was severely lacking. As in, there wasn’t any of it.
I bet you know some normal people who tried it for the first time. And they probably have some negative opinions, too.
So there’s a signal here. It was an incredibly bold move to just "turn on generative A.I." for millions of people this weekend — especially without any education, training, or guardrails. Which I think is a miss.
What’s the worst that could happen? A lot. It seems like we’ve seen this movie before.
🥓 Get Your Tickets for Social Media Breakfast in May
Join Greg Swan & Jenny Swan for a live podcast recording of The Cave Project:
"A Modern Paradox: Putting Humans Back in Social Media"
Join us on May 17th with Jenny and Greg Swan for an interactive and live recording of The Cave Project, where they will dive into "A Modern Paradox: Putting Humans Back in Social Media." This session will explore the overwhelming power of technology, the social media dilemma and its impact on our daily lives, and how we can reclaim our digital spaces with a human-centric approach.
Expect a blend of insights, personal anecdotes, and practical advice on navigating the social media landscape of 2024 responsibly, proactively, and with a little fun, too. Bring your own thoughts and stories to engage directly with the hosts through live Q&A and audience interaction, too.
📵 RIP TikTok? Nope.
While there's a chance TikTok will go away, there's a certainty it will change. So what should we do today? Given the platform's importance in the social media marketing mix and the drawn-out timeline for this week's legislative impact = companies should probably maintain their current approach to TikTok as usual.
Looking ahead, study how TikTok takes measures to tell its privacy story and prove its value. Watch how the modern interpretation of First Amendment protections are tested. Keep an eye on Gen Z and how they react to this news. And don't forget, it's an election year.
Always of note, there's wisdom in continually looking to the future of audience shifts, evaluating channels based on KPIs, testing alternative platforms, and keeping in mind that "change" is part of the job in digital and social media marketing.
🧢 Y2K hats in 2024
saw I wrote about watching the Time Bomb Y2K documentary back in February (paid subscribers have access to archives here). It was produced using entirely archival footage, and you already know I love that kind of “looking back to look forward” approach using news clips, and therefore, I watched it twice. So Josh and Emily fell in love with this unnamed man in the film wearing a hilarious hat that read “01/01/Oh, Oh!” But you can’t buy one - so they made one! And sent one to me!If you’re into this kind of thing (and if you want to coerce them to make you a sweet Y2K hat in the year 2024), you should follow RabbitHoles.
🔥 Quick Hits
Instagram is doing too much, writes Kate Lindsay over at Embedded: “Users keep telling the app over and over again what they want: To post photos for their friends. And yet for some reason Meta continually takes these learnings and decides that people avoiding Instagram’s front-facing features by increasingly using Direct Messages means they must want to *spins wheel of things Adam Mosseri scribbles into a notepad when he jolts awake at night…”
Meta opened up Meta OS, the operating system powering Meta Quest devices, to third-party hardware makers. It’s a big move.
Have thought a lot this week about this piece in HRB: Why Engineers Should Study Philosophy. Key quote: “Automating the mechanics of code creation and focusing on our critical thinking abilities is what will allow us to create more, faster and have disproportionate impact on the world. Helping AI help us be more human, less computer.”
Dove beauty asks What kind of beauty do we want AI to learn?
Digiday reporter Marty Swant writes How AI misinformation affects consumer thoughts on elections and brands
Speaking of, Wwith the rise of the chief AI officer, is it time to examine ‘czar’ culture?
This is a bold headline: Apple's generative AI may be the only one that was trained legally & ethically. It’s not that black and white when you dig into it. Apple should debut its generative AI technology during WWDC which starts on June 10.
Google is delaying the death of the cookie. Again.
French musician Jean-Michel Jarre became the world's first passenger to take off in the futuristic flying 'AirCar' that can transform from a road vehicle into a plane in 90 seconds.
Zuck shares the roadmap for smart glasses between now and 2029: 1) one that has a small display for notifications and a little bit of information, and 2) one that has a full field of view with holograms that enables social connections via the metaverse but within stylish glasses. "It's not that far away," he says.
App of the Week: BePresent, the Duolingo for screentime
Documentary of the Week: The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem was a pretty compelling look into 4chan and its impact on social, society, politics, and more. Highly recommended watch. I saw 4chan founder Christoper Poole speak live in 2011 and went back through my notes and tweets about this talk, including finding this seemingly innocuous comment that today really says a lot: "You must allow online communities to form their own identity."
Pallette Cleanser of the Week: After you get your heart broken over the above documentary of the week, I also really loved Conan O’Brien Must Go and laughed out loud multiple times.
Reel of the Week: Houston Art Car Parade
Librarian TikTok of the Week: Can I get the latest lyrics from REM?
See you in the future! 🚀
GREG
PS. congrats to my former team + clients on their win at The Webby Awards this week in the Advertising, Media, & PR Real-Time Response category. 🔥💙