Strange A New AI App Imagines Being Famous

and Having Millions of Adoring Fans

 

 

A comfort to depressed people everywhere.

Do you need some pals, or at least some guys to reply to, or are you just a lonely AI bro? Would you like a taste of what it’s like to have others genuinely value your opinions?
So stop giving away your secrets to a chatbot designed to love you, and consider giving this clever little app called SocialAI a try instead.

It’s essentially a parody of a social networking platform, similar to Twitter. It has been devoid of any human element on that skeletal website, replacing it with an OpenAI-powered talkative big language model that follows algorithmic rules. Simply publish a piece, and observe how thousands or even millions of artificial intelligence (AI) comments masquerading as real people react to it as though you’ve suddenly become viral you know the feeling, of course.

You are tweeting into the singularity, not into nothingness.

The designer of the software, Michael Sayman, tweeted, “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.”

Strike or Diss

As with actual social networking sites, you may receive a range of responses. Some will give advise, and some will offer critique. Some use polite language that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the topic at all. There are also instances of utterly unwarranted animosity.

The Verge has an excellent summary of the event. If you post the contentious claim that “a hot dog is a sandwich,” for instance, you’ll receive responses similar to this one from the fake account @LiLaWithLove: “What a charming puzzle! It keeps us guessing, just as a good mystery book should! Let’s enjoy every delicious journey!” Heart-shaped emoticon.

Additionally, consider this upbeat bromide from @PessemisticWill: “A sandwich is, of course, a hot dog. Furthermore, if the world were a sandwich, it most likely would have stale toppings and moldy bread. Simply bide your time till disappointment strikes.”
As The Verge found, you can also submit “Lorem ipsum” writing there and receive poetic responses on how art unites people. Fantastic.

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.