Meta’s AI influencers threaten the creator economy more than TikTok ban

Meta’s AI influencers on Facebook and Instagram risk restructuring the creator economy. Some analysts even believe the product poses a larger threat than the TikTok ban.

According to Kyla Scanlon, Bloomberg’s opinion contributor, Meta AI’s generated content will flourish but might come at the cost of human livelihoods.

Meta introduces AI influencers, which could push out human content content creators

Meta still prioritizes AI integration into its social media platforms, hoping to attract younger users and edge out competitors like TikTok and Snapchat. 

One of its latest AI introductions is a tool that helps users create AI characters on Instagram and Facebook. However, users, particularly content creators, have pushed back against the AI product.

Connor Hayes, Meta’s vice president of product for generative AI, said:

We expect these AIs to actually exist on our platforms in the same way that [human] accounts do.

~Connor Hayes

This raised questions about the long-term impact that these AI influencers could have on human creators’ income streams. Kyla Scanlon believes Meta’s new AI characters could restructure the creator economy. She added that AI-generated content could easily thrive since it’s scalable, cheap, never rests, and perfectly controllable. However, its success could come at the expense of human creators. 

Scanlon does, however, believe that the biggest challenge for AI influencers is their inability to fully replicate the human experience, insisting that this aspect alone could preserve the human creator economy. She remarked how AI could not mimic real human faces with authentic stories, living in real places, or the little, messy, and beautiful imperfections of human creativity.

TikTok could be banned in the United States

Aside from the potential competition from AI influencers, human creators in the US will have to deal with a looming TikTok ban.

On January 10, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments concerning TikTok’s potential ban. US lawmakers want the social media platform to sell to a US company or risk losing the US market. If the court fails to intervene, the application will be banned across the country’s servers and devices on January 19. 

However, the Supreme Court might not favor Tiktok, especially after its judges appeared satisfied with the focus on its controversial Chinese ownership of the app’s parent company.

On December 27, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump submitted a motion opposing the TikTok ban. He hopes to fight for a political resolution once he takes office. However, If Donald Trump wants to help Tiktok maintain its US market, he must do so within the law.

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