Facebook's founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has stated that users spend a significant amount of time on Instagram, which, according to him, is mainly due to the AI recommendations made by the Instagram AI algorithm. In Meta's second quarter earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg said that the use of the app increased by double-digit percentage compared to last year, mostly due to the better content suggestions in users' newsfeed and Reels.
"Our recommendations have become more personalized, surfacing more new content and offering people more control over their experience."
How the New AI System Works
In the case of Instagram Reels, Zuckerberg says that the company now offers faster AI capabilities along with a totally new recommendation system. This time, the algorithm doesn’t just analyze simple signals like engagement but also focuses on how the user engages with the posts to make recommendations for what they will watch next.
On a technical level, Meta’s recommendation engine makes use of the large language model to analyze all the publicly available Reels and Instagram posts in order to determine their subject matter and tone.
The Numbers Behind the Growth
These changes resulted in a 15 basis point increase in the number of sessions on Instagram, as well as an increased amount of re-sharing activity and total time spent scrolling. It is worth noting that Meta does not plan to limit these improvements to Instagram only – a similar system will be implemented across other platforms, such as Facebook.
Privacy Concerns Haven't Gone Away
The move follows criticism of Meta for the introduction of the Muse Image function that allows users to create AI images with photographs collected from public accounts on Instagram from adult accounts. The problem is that these eligible accounts were added without warning users. The issue led to Meta disabling the function shortly after its introduction due to concerns over privacy.
Users can currently restrict the extent of the data accessed by Meta's AI for public photos and videos but not text, comment, or audio data.
Meta Still Faces Legal Pressure
Other than privacy concerns, the recommendation algorithms of Meta are right under the regulatory spotlight. This is because over two dozen states within the United States have sued the company over its purposefully addictive algorithm targeting young children and teens.
In addition, during the same earnings call, Susan Li, CFO at Meta, admitted that Meta will continue facing legal scrutiny over youth protection issues in future. Moreover, she revealed that Meta incurred expenses amounting to $2.40 billion associated with current legal cases.
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