[HN Gopher] AI is making Meta's apps basically unusable
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       AI is making Meta's apps basically unusable
        
       Author : skilled
       Score  : 12 points
       Date   : 2024-04-28 21:47 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.fastcompany.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.fastcompany.com)
        
       | datenyan wrote:
       | I know it's old-hat to say at this point, but I'm getting really
       | exhausted of seeing companies trying to sate investors and
       | techbros by introducing more and more AI-powered "features" into
       | existing applications. I don't need to be able to generate images
       | in my Facebook messenger chat with my parents, nor do I need to
       | ask Microsoft Copilot how to use my own computer.
        
         | ativzzz wrote:
         | I work at a B2B SaaS and we have so many customers asking us
         | about about our plans for integrating AI into our platform, for
         | no other reason other than their leadership/stakeholders want
         | to use more AI.
         | 
         | We ask them what they want the AI to do and they don't have an
         | answer. They just want AI
        
           | datenyan wrote:
           | > We ask them what they want the AI to do and they don't have
           | an answer. They just want AI
           | 
           | Perhaps I'm just not management-brained enough but this just
           | seems so foreign to me - why introduce features just because
           | they're the buzzword? It's not even like they have a path to
           | making it profitable, it's just the same buzz as "Web3" and
           | "Crypto" repackaged.
        
             | stevage wrote:
             | I can't really explain it either, but it's just how it
             | works. Internal proposals that use the latest buzzwords
             | succeed much more than those that don't. I remember seeing
             | this with big data, smart city, sustainability, resilience
             | and a few others - often when it was a huge stretch no find
             | any relevance whatsoever.
        
       | kaycebasques wrote:
       | > The Meta AI experience has so far been a spam-filled one.
       | Nowhere is that clearer than on Instagram where the search
       | function, once a place to look up a friend's account, now exists
       | seemingly to usher users into conversation with a chatbot. "Ask
       | Meta AI anything" it now reads in my search bar. Um, no. I just
       | want to look up my dog's daycare to see if they posted any
       | pictures of her.
       | 
       | I've experienced this and it's perplexing. I was recently looking
       | for things to do in Osaka during my upcoming visit. Probably a
       | high-value query for advertisers: I would definitely be receptive
       | to ads from restaurants, museums, etc. But instead it dumped me
       | to a chatbot that was not capable to funnel me to any ads like
       | that???
        
       | mvdtnz wrote:
       | Wow the Meta AI pretending to have disabled children in order to
       | inject itself into a conversation it was never invited into is
       | incredibly creepy.
        
       | insin wrote:
       | At least 3 years of ignoring the prompt to review the new
       | WhatsApp terms of service have been the perfect training for
       | ignoring the 2 non-removable AI calls to action it's now added to
       | the app's home screen, for no good reason I can think of. That's
       | literally never going to be a thing I want to do if I'm opening
       | WhatsApp.
        
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       (page generated 2024-04-28 23:01 UTC)