Security News > 2024 > March > AI and the Evolution of Social Media

There is a lot we can learn about social media's unregulated evolution over the past decade that directly applies to AI companies and technologies.

These lessons can help us avoid making the same mistakes with AI that we did with social media.

Remarkably powerful AI text generators and autonomous agents are already starting to make their presence felt in social media.

In July, researchers at Indiana University revealed a botnet of more than 1,100 Twitter accounts that appeared to be operated using ChatGPT. AI will help reinforce viral content that emerges from social media.

Even now-after all the studies and revelations of social media's negative effects on kids and mental health, after Cambridge Analytica, after the exposure of Russian intervention in our politics, after everything else-social media in the US remains largely an unregulated "Weapon of mass destruction." Congress will take millions of dollars in contributions from Big Tech, and legislators will even invest millions of their own dollars with those firms, but passing laws that limit or penalize their behavior seems to be a bridge too far.

The problem is that this isn't happening now, particularly in the US. And with a looming presidential election, conflict spreading alarmingly across Asia and Europe, and a global climate crisis, it's easy to imagine that we won't get our arms around AI any faster than we have with social media.

News URL

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/03/ai-and-the-evolution-of-social-media.html