Social Media in a Post-AGI World
What will social media platforms look like after the advent of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)? To answer this, we must first understand the core functions of social media:
Content factory: User-generated microcontent production and distribution system
Addictive drug: Exploit psychological vulnerabilities for engagement maximization
Digital social fabric: Virtual extension of human relationship networks
Reality filter: Curated information gateway shaping users' worldviews
AGI will likely transform this landscape through these enabling technologies:
1. AI-generated content supremacy: AGI will create more compelling content than the real world. Platforms or creators will produce tailored content that stimulates dopamine more effectively than user-generated material. Imagine Netflix and Instagram merged into a platform that dynamically creates the content you’re most interested in.
2. AI-optimized social relationships: Agentic systems will manage our social and professional lives by mediating, scheduling, and guiding our social engagements — professional, social, and romantic. Their superior efficiency may exclude those who prefer manual interaction from online social networks. (I don't claim that this is either good or bad -- plenty of people who live fulfilling lives without participating on any social platforms.)
3. Personalized feeds replace platform feeds: AI agents will aggregate content from all relevant platforms, replacing the need to visit individual sites like Facebook or Reddit. These agents will curate feeds based on comprehensive life histories, psychological profiles, and engagement patterns.
4. AI mental health optimization: While AI-generated content will exacerbate addiction (potentially posing existential risks), it may also redirect our attention to more meaningful interests and optimize for human flourishing. For example, shifting YouTube viewing from movie snippets to educational videos, and encouraging engagements with friends over influencers.
There are too many uncertainties to make any definite predictions about a post AGI world, but I expect that agentic systems combined with the enabling technologies described above will dramatically transform both the kind of content we consume, and how it is presented. I would hope that individuals have greater and not lesser agency in choosing agents and content algorithms that optimize for mental health and human flouring over ever more addictive, isolating, self-destructive content feeds.