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Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom says AI companies are trying too hard to \u201cjuice engagement\u201d by pestering their users with follow-up questions, instead of providing actually useful insights.<\/p>\n
Systrom said the tactics represent \u201ca force that\u2019s hurting us,\u201d comparing them to those used by social media companies to expand aggressively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see some of these companies going down the rabbit hole that all the consumer companies have gone down in trying to juice engagement,\u201d he said<\/a> at StartupGrind this week. \u201cEvery time I ask a question, at the end it asks another little question to see if it can get yet another question out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n The comments come amid criticism of ChatGPT for being too nice to users<\/a> instead of directly answering their questions. OpenAI has apologized for the problem<\/a> and blamed \u201cshort-term feedback\u201d from users<\/a> for it.<\/p>\n Systrom suggested that chatbots being overly engaging is not a bug but an intentional feature designed for AI companies to show off metrics like time spent and daily active users. AI companies should be \u201claser-focused\u201d on providing high-quality answers rather than moving metrics in the easiest way possible, he said.<\/p>\n Systrom didn\u2019t name any specific AI companies in his remarks. He didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n In response, OpenAI pointed TechCrunch to its user specs<\/a>, which state that its AI model \u201coften does not have all of the information\u201d to provide a good answer and may ask for \u201cclarification or more details.\u201d<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBerkeley, CA<\/span>
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