About a month ago, Michael Sayman realized he could finally build the app he’d been thinking about for years: a social network where everyone but you was an artificially intelligent bot. Large language models are finally good enough and cheap enough that the experience might actually feel social and useful rather than like a gimmick or a game. So, after years of waiting and months of testing the latest models, Saayman got to work.
The app he developed, called SocialAI, has become a viral phenomenon since its launch. (He only told me that the software was downloaded 20,000 times in its first few days, but he said that number has risen significantly since then.) Some people think it looks interesting and useful; . Others thought it felt very dystopian. They want to know, is social networking still social networking if you’re the only one there? Others believe the whole thing is some kind of art project, a social commentary on the current state of the online world.
As far as this episode is concerned edge broadcastSayman says it’s really all of the above. But most importantly, it attempts to establish a completely new way of interacting with artificial intelligence models. Rather than a chatbot trying to provide the single best response to your prompt, SocialAI gives you options and filters in the form of responses. When you reply to a bot or bookmark a response, the model learns more about what you’re looking for and lets you choose your own AI adventures, rather than just hoping the model gets it right.
“Over the past 10 years, the social media giants have been iterating,” says Sayman, “taking all the data in the world and trying to perfect an interface that allows people to interact with as many people and as many perspectives as possible. Right? SocialAI looks like Twitter or Threads, he said, not to make you forget that all responders are artificial intelligence, but because we all know how social networks work. “It’s not social for the sake of being a social network. , but social for the sake of social interface. “
SocialAI is still in its early stages, and you can tell that immediately from the quality of some of the responses. Still, Sayman said he’s seen encouraging usage and feedback, and he has a lot of ideas for what’s next for the app. The future of artificial intelligence might not be a text box, but it might not be an exact Twitter clone either. We discussed some of the features he plans to roll out, how interfaces will change over time, why he thinks social network design is the new skeuomorphism, and whether there’s a business for SocialAI over time.
Ultimately, Thaeman doesn’t think SocialAI is a dystopian nightmare. The real dystopia, he said, is the current situation, where you never know who is human and who is not, and everyone is posting on increasingly dangerous and problematic platforms all the time. “I’m not trying to replace human connection,” he said. “I’m trying to help people find a way to have a second option when that person isn’t around them so they don’t have to rush to social media.” Next time you need to vent, he hopes you can decide to tell robot. They will be there for you.
If you’d like to learn more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:
