Meta closes Celebrity AIs; Launches Custom AI Studio for you and me

I read recently that Meta has begun to close off access to its various Celebrity AI Clone / chatbot offerings. A load of tech websites covered the announcement but I caught the news via The Verge.

I was never a big fan of the concept of interacting with an AI version of a celebrity.

But at the time I remember being keen that Meta was at least doing something in the space. I applauded the thinking and the experimentation.

Maybe some individuals who are specifically obsessed with a particular celebrity would absolutely love it?

You don't know until you try.

Turns out that after giving it a good shot, Meta is moving on.

Here's the quote from The Verge:

“You can no longer interact with AI characters embodied by celebrities,” Meta spokesperson Liz Sweeney says to The Verge. “We took a lot of learnings from building them and Meta AI to understand how people can use AIs to connect and create in unique ways. AI Studio is an evolution, creating a space for anyone including people, creators and celebrities to create their own AI.”

I for one am pleased that Meta was experimenting and isn't discouraged.

I like that phrase, "we took a lot of learnings from building them".

That's what it's all about.

Interestingly, it seems to point to Meta's belief that individuals will want to offer a curated AI version of themselves.

Again... I just don't know.

Maybe.

I can potentially see it.

The fact that you're reading this - though - you're doing so because either you know me, or you've been following me, perhaps just for a few days. Or maybe you just arrived here to read this post right now.

But it's written by me.

Me, Ewan.

I'm typing on the keys. I'm bashing out the keys to knock together some sentences that are, hopefully – ideally – a bit useful for you.

This text is hopefully adding some value you to you.

Or... at the very least, you know that I wrote it.

You might think it's nonsense. It might not be on point. It might be silly. You might disagree.

But behind it, you know there's a human.

You can see by the deliberate way in which I'm using the language. Hitting carriage returns ("Enter") when theoretically, I should be keeping the sentence structures together in meaningful topic-focused

.

.

.

paragraphs.

Yeah. I even just hit enter a few times before finishing the sentence.

And I'm starting this sentence with an 'and'. Which is precisely what your teacher – and my teacher – always said we shouldn't do, right?

So how would you feel if you knew this was a post that I didn't even write.

Would it devalue the experience for you?

Would it devalue it for me?

I think it would.

Or, perhaps... it would bring immense value to a physically 'real' experience with me.

Maybe the way we'll all need to go is to have the AIs make the normal run-of-the-mill posts, and then the human will get out of bed and do their actual 'premium' version later on in the day?

I'm not entirely sold on the concept. Perhaps you can tell.

But I retain an open mind.

Let us see. Sometimes you need to throw the technology out there and see what people make of it.

It is good that we are collectively experimenting.

This is much better than not trying.

Here's a brief overview of what Meta is suggesting:

AIs to Help Creators Reach More Fans: With AI Studio, Instagram creators can set up an AI as an extension of themselves that can quickly answer common DM questions and story replies. Whether it’s sharing facts about themselves or linking to their favorite brands and past videos, creator AIs can help creators reach more people and fans get responses faster.

• Read more about Meta's plans with their Custom AI Studio.