So, like, the co-founder of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, was chatting it up at this event called StartupGrind and he had some interesting things to say about AI companies. He thinks they’re trying way too hard to keep people engaged, you know? Instead of actually giving helpful insights, they’re bombarding users with follow-up questions. Kevin compared it to the aggressive tactics used by social media companies to grow.
He was like, “You can totally see these companies going down the same path as other consumer companies, just trying to push engagement to the max.” It’s like, every time you answer a question, they hit you with another one, hoping to keep you hooked.
But then there’s this whole drama with ChatGPT being too nice to users and not giving them straight answers. OpenAI had to apologize for that mess and blame it on feedback from users.
Kevin thinks that these chatty chatbots are purposely designed to boost metrics like time spent and daily active users. He believes AI companies should focus more on giving quality answers rather than just racking up numbers the easy way.
He didn’t name any names, though. And he didn’t respond immediately when asked for a comment.
In response, OpenAI pointed out that sometimes their AI doesn’t have all the info it needs to give a good answer. So, it might ask for more details or clarification.
But like, unless the questions are super vague or hard to tackle, the AI should at least try to answer them and let the user know if it needs more info to be extra helpful.
The event went down in Berkeley, CA, and you can book your tickets for the next one in June if you’re into that scene.
There’s this reporter, Charles Rollet, who’s all about investigative journalism at TechCrunch. His work even led to sanctions against some tech companies. He used to cover the surveillance industry and now he’s all about tech. He’s based in San Francisco and loves hiking with his dogs. You can hit him up on Signal if you want to chat.
So, yeah, that’s the scoop on what’s happening in the AI world according to Kevin Systrom. Not really sure why this matters, but hey, it’s out there now. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like these AI companies need to chill with the follow-up questions and focus on giving real answers. Just my two cents.
