AI: Meta's AI celebrities don't stick. RTZ #435

...a long process to find 'product-market-fit' that delights at Scale

One thing about this AI Tech Wave I’ve long discussed is how we’ll have to go through a lot of failed attempts for tech companies large and small to find the right ‘product-market-fit’ as they throw a lot of things to see what sticks. At great time and expense, as they experiment with a range of AI applications and services. They’re mostly in the holy grail of the AI tech stack below, in Box 6.

One major initiative I’ve talked about is how Meta and many other companies are focused on AI driven digital twin personalities and characters, trying to offer entertainment, agentic and companionship features to main stream users. An example was of course Meta’s high-profile effort in this direction a few months ago that I discussed. Today, the Information reports in “Meta Scraps Celebrity AI Chatbots That Fell Flat With Users” of course, that they’re going to try a different tack here:

“Meta Platforms has scrapped its first high-profile foray into consumer artificial intelligence—chatbots played by celebrities and social media influencers such as Charli D’Amelio, MrBeast and Paris Hilton.”

“The reversal, less than a year after Meta launched the celebrity chatbots, shows how even the biggest tech companies haven’t figured out how to transform breakthroughs in generative AI into winning consumer products.”

“None of the AI chatbots amassed particularly big followings, especially compared with the personal accounts of the celebrities. In some cases Meta paid millions of dollars to license these celebrities’ likenesses.”

“Links to the accounts of the celebrity chatbots on Facebook and Instagram returned a message Tuesday saying the pages are not available.”

They’re pivoting to creating and offering tools for ‘Creators’ on Meta services to offer more engaging AI driven content and representations to entertain, engage, sustain and grow their audiences:

“Meta is now taking a different approach to AI chatbots. On Monday, the company rolled out a new feature called AI Studio in the U.S., allowing any creator to ​​customize AI avatars of themself to answer common questions from fans, such as where they bought a dress or offering a link for a workout video. This feature is similar to one offered by startup Character.AI, which had an early lead in consumer chatbots but has since considered research partnerships with companies including Meta.

“A Meta spokesperson confirmed the chatbot takedowns, saying in a statement: “We took a lot of learnings from building them and Meta AI to understand how people can use AIs to connect and create in unique ways.” The company expects people, including celebrities, to use AI Studio to customize their own AI avatars.”

The ‘Creator Economy’ is one that Goldman Sachs has projected to grow from a quarter billion dolalrs today to over half a billion in the next three years. Companies like Google with YouTube, Meta with Instagram Reels, and of course TikTok are big beneficiaries of that growth amongst many others.

Meta and others are going to try a lot of different things, throw them against the wall and see what sticks. Eventually, some of these companies, large or small, will find things that truly delight the mainstream at Scale. Most won’t of course. That’s the long, bumpy road to tech innovation every tech wave. Stay tuned.

(NOTE: The discussions here are for information purposes only, and not meant as investment advice at any time. Thanks for joining us here)