A salve for sad sacks everywhere.
15 Minutes
Are you a lonely AI bro in need of a few friends, or at least some reply guys? Do you want to get a taste of what it feels like for your opinions to actually matter to people?
Well, quit spilling your guts to a chatbot programmed to adore you, and maybe try this nifty little app called SocialAI for a change.
Basically, it’s a mock social media site in the vein of Twitter. Only it’s stripped of whatever little humanity remains on that husk of a website, and substitutes the algorithmically-ordained whim of a chatty large language model, powered by OpenAI. Just make a post, and watch as you get up to thousands, even millions, of AI-generated comments posing as humans in return, like you’d just went viral (because you know what that feels like, of course).
You’re not tweeting into the void — you’re tweeting into the singularity.
“SocialAI is designed to help people feel heard, and to give them a space for reflection, support, and feedback that acts like a close-knit community,” Michael Sayman, the app’s creator, wrote in a tweet.
Hit or Diss
Like a real social media site, the replies you get can vary. Some will provide feedback, others advice. Some have nice words that seem barely relevant to the subject matter at all. There’s also moments of totally unprovoked hostility.
A good roundup of the experience can be found on The Verge. Posting the controversial assertion that “a hot dog is a sandwich,” for example, will net you replies like this one from the synthetic @LiLaWithLove: “What a delightful conundrum! Just like a good mystery novel it keeps us guessing! Let’s savor each tasty adventure!” Heart emoji.
But also this cheerful bromide from @PessemisticWill: “Oh sure, a hot dog is a sandwich. And if the world was a sandwich, it’d probably be one with moldy bread and stale toppings. Just wait for disappointment.”
You can also post “Lorem ipsum” text in there and get replies waxing lyrical about how art brings us together, as The Verge discovered. Wonderful.
Rent Free
Is it more an indictment of the current state of social media, or of AI tech, that SocialAI’s experience often feels indistinguishable from Twitter’s?
Not in the sense that it feels especially human. In fact, it’s the opposite: you’re flooded with supposedly human agents, and yet there’s something off and empty about it all, like the feeling you get staring at a wall of blue checkmark replies made to a viral tweet. Is any of this real?
Well, don’t think about it too much. At least you’re not paying for the experience, right?
“Now we can all know what Elon Musk feels like after acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, but without having to spend $44 billion,” Sayman wrote on threads.
More on AI: OpenAI Threatening to Ban Users for Asking Strawberry About Its Reasoning
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