Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is testing a new feature that takes personalization to another level by generating AI-based content tailored to users’ interests and likeness. The move, announced quietly amid other product updates at Meta’s annual developers conference, represents a significant shift in how AI is used on social media, potentially opening a Pandora’s box of implications for user experience.
Meta’s new AI-generated posts will proactively appear in users’ Facebook and Instagram feeds, offering content imagined by the platform’s AI based on users’ interests. This may include stylized images or scenes featuring the users’ likeness, allowing them to become the “star” of their own AI-crafted stories. Meta’s AI will generate these posts to fit a user’s preferences, providing options to either explore more of the same content or redirect it in new directions. Users will also have the option to opt out if they prefer to keep their feeds human-curated.
This move builds on Meta’s growing use of AI to recommend content beyond the posts shared by friends and follows its recent tests of AI tools in Messenger and social media comment threads. While the idea is to enhance engagement, AI-generated content has seen mixed reception from the public. Often referred to as “slop,” much of this content is seen as mediocre and impersonal, raising questions about how far the technology can go before users start losing interest.
The reaction to Meta’s AI-powered feeds could be a turning point for how social media platforms use AI to create personalized content. As AI continues to integrate into the social experience, the broader question remains whether users will embrace or reject a future where computer-generated posts dominate their feeds.
