AI: Beyond the Search Keyhole

...Meta shows their way

For a lot of people who’ve been participating since November in OpenAI’s ChatGPT moment, the current hullabaloo around AI may feel like just a more robust version of Search online. 

And if we look at how companies like Google have responded, by rapidly incorporating AI into Google Search via their still experimental ‘Search Generative Experience’, or SGE, it would reinforce that impression for millions of ChatGPT users. 

Yet, if that is the impression they come away with, they’re looking at AI through a keyhole. These are but the most obvious early ways to deploy and use this technology and that’s what we are seeing for mainstream users first and foremost. 

New technologies generally are introduced via familiar old services via earlier technologies . The earliest TV popular shows in the 1950s were adaptations of hit radio shows first. Think everything from ‘I Love Lucy’ to ‘Gunsmoke’. 

Early graphical user interfaces on personal computers mimicked office icons complete with file folders and trash cans. The old showing the way to the new. Still with us in Windows and Macs today. Eased us all into the world of digital productivity.

The point is that AI is already being used at scale for applications beyond ‘Search’ on steroids. 

And Meta’s announcement today to lay out how they’re planning to use AI across Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger (over 3 billion daily users globally right there), is a case in point. 

“Billions of people use Facebook and Instagram every day to share the ups and downs of life, to connect with people who share their interests, and to discover content they enjoy. To make everyone’s experience on our apps unique and personalized to them, we use AI systems to decide what content appears, informed by the choices they make.”

We’ve already discussed Meta’s Ai ambitions earlier. As Techcrunch expands further:

“The company released 22 “System Cards” today explaining how different AI systems work, such as Facebook Feed recommendations, Facebook Group timelines, suggested people and groups, Instagram Reels recommendations, notifications system and Stories AI. These cards expand on these topics through examples but can take a while to read and understand for an average user.”

The piece highlights where this has already been going as part of passive user experiences:

“Instagram has also been increasing AI-powered content in its feed. In its Q1 2023, earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg said that time spent on Instagram jumped by 24%, thanks to AI-aided Reels suggestions. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that the company aims to increase the presence of such content by filling up 30% of the feed with algorithmic recommendations. 

The release of documents and controls is the latest in an effort by Meta to appease regulators and privacy advocates before the company pushes ahead with more AI-powered content.”

Again, mixing in new technologies into old, popular services. Classic ‘AI Add-on’ strategies. And get ahead of regulators with their proactive moves. A twofer. 

Expect other services like TikTok, Google YouTube, and many others to do the same as AI drives what billions see and use online very soon. And for many before they type in their first ChatGPT ‘Prompt’. 

So AI is already far beyond ChatGPT and there’s a need to expand thinking beyond the Search keyhole. Even though it captures our attention first by first challenging one of the most successful, businesses created online. 

And Microsoft/OpenAI wanting to let us all know that they “made them [Google] Dance”. Stay tuned.