Roughly
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
is
an
AI
bot.
Large
language
models
are
finally
good
enough
and
cheap
enough
that
the
experience
might
actually
feel
social
and
useful,
and
not
like
a
gimmick
or
a
game.
And
so,
after
years
of
waiting
and
months
of
testing
the
latest
models,
Sayman
got
to
work.
The
app
he
built
is
called
SocialAI,
and
it
has
become
something
of
a
viral
phenomenon
since
it
launched.
(All
he’d
tell
me
is
that
it
was
downloaded
20,000
times
in
the
first
couple
of
days
—
but
says
the
number
has
gone
up
substantially
since
then.)
Some
people
thought
it
seemed
fun
and
useful;
other
people
thought
it
felt
deeply
dystopian.
Is
a
social
network
still
a
social
network,
they
wondered,
if
you’re
the
only
human
present?
Still
others
thought
the
whole
thing
was
an
art
project
of
sorts,
a
social
commentary
on
the
state
of
the
online
world.
On
this
episode
of
The
Vergecast,
Sayman
says
it’s
really
all
of
the
above.
But
most
of
all,
it’s
an
attempt
to
build
an
entirely
new
way
to
interact
with
AI
models.
Instead
of
a
chatbot,
which
tries
to
deliver
you
the
single
best
response
to
your
prompt,
SocialAI
offers
you
options
and
filters
in
the
form
of
replies.
When
you
respond
to
a
bot,
or
favorite
a
reply,
that
teaches
the
model
more
about
what
you’re
looking
for
—
and
lets
you
choose
your
own
AI
adventure
instead
of
just
hoping
the
model
gets
it
right.
“Over
the
past
10
years,
we’ve
had
social
media
giants
iterating
relentlessly,”
Sayman
says,
“with
all
the
data
in
the
world,
to
try
and
perfect
an
interface
where
people
can
interact
with
as
many
people
and
points
of
view
as
possible,
right?”
SocialAI
looks
like
Twitter
or
Threads,
he
says,
not
to
trick
you
into
forgetting
all
the
reply
guys
are
AI
but
because
we
all
know
exactly
how
social
networks
work.
“It’s
not
social
for
the
sake
of
the
social
network,
but
social
for
the
sake
of
social
interface.”
SocialAI
is
still
in
its
very
early
stages,
which
you’ll
be
able
to
tell
immediately
from
the
quality
of
some
of
the
replies.
Still,
Sayman
says
he’s
already
seeing
encouraging
usage
and
feedback
—
and
he
has
lots
of
ideas
about
where
to
take
the
app
next.
The
future
of
AI
probably
isn’t
a
text
box,
but
it
also
probably
isn’t
exactly
a
Twitter
clone,
either.
We
talk
through
some
of
the
features
he’s
planning
on
launching,
how
the
interface
might
change
over
time,
why
he
thinks
of
social
network
design
as
the
new
skeuomorphism,
and
whether
there’s
a
business
in
SocialAI
over
time.
Ultimately,
Sayman
doesn’t
think
of
SocialAI
as
a
dystopian
nightmare.
The
truly
dystopian
thing,
he
says,
is
the
current
state
of
things,
in
which
you
never
know
who’s
human
and
who’s
not,
and
everyone’s
just
posting
through
it
all
the
time
on
increasingly
dangerous
and
problematic
platforms.
“I’m
not
trying
to
replace
the
human
to
human
connection,”
he
says.
“I’m
trying
to
help
people
find
a
way
to
have
a
secondary
option
when
that
human
isn’t
around
for
them,
so
that
they
don’t
have
to
rush
to
social
media.”
Next
time
you
need
to
vent,
he
hopes
you
might
decide
to
tell
the
bots
instead.
They’ll
be
there
for
you.
If
you
want
to
know
more
about
everything
we
dicuss
in
this
episode,
here
are
some
links
to
get
you
started:
Original author: David Pierce
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