The wait is over, with all X users now able to access Elon’s non-woke “Grok” AI chatbot, which had thus far only been available to X Premium subscribers. Which is fewer than 1% of the platform’s users.
With Grok, users can now ask questions, generate images (which is now even better with X’s new Aurora integration), analyze posts to get more context as to their meaning, generate sassy responses (via “Unhinged Fun” mode), and more.
Though whether AI chatbots have a real place within social media apps remains to be seen. The latest wave of generative AI tools has seen Meta jam its AI chatbot into virtually all of its apps, while LinkedIn has also been adding more and more AI elements to “assist” in your posting process.
But is it really assistive to get AI tools to generate posts on your behalf, which you then, post to social media apps that are foundationally built around actual social, human-to-human interaction?
I guess, an argument could be made as to what defines “social” interaction in this context. But the concept of social media, thus far, has been that it gives everyone an opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions, thereby democratizing media to some degree.
In which case, posting AI generated posts and images seems to run counter to that. Right?
As such, I’m not sure that I see the long-term value of the integration of gen AI into social apps.
Am I saying that the potential of generative AI overall is overblown? Well, no, as there are a heap of ways in which AI can be used to streamline workflows, improve processes, etc., and it will be transformative in many sectors and applications.
But generative AI, via the offerings that are currently available at least, is only really of value when you know what you want from it, and you have enough of your own expertise and insight to analyze its outputs.
For example, gen AI will make it easier for lawyers to research cases, as they’ll be able to, say, ask it to come up with alternative angles for argument, which they may not have considered, and then find cases that establish precedent for th