Category: SOCIAL MEDIA

So now that we’ve seen Meta’s latest iteration of its AR glasses, in its Orion prototype, which it showcased at its Connect conference last week, we can get some scope of the state of play in AR wearables, and where each of the key players is situated at this stage of the game.

The three considerations here are Meta’s Orion, Snap’s AR Spectacles, and Apple’s VisionPro, all of which have various pros and cons, which may or may not work in their favor in the long run.

As you can see from this comparison, Snap is seemingly behind the others in terms of technical capacity, which a much more limited field of view, though its resolution stats are better within that more limited display.

In terms of weight, Orion is currently well ahead, which has been a key focus of Meta’s development, in building a more lightweight device that incorporates all of the required technology. Indeed, Meta has called the device “a feat of miniaturization.”

Apple’s VisionPro meanwhile has a broader field of view, but that weight seems excessive, and not really compatible with mobile usage.

Which is where Meta looks set to be leading the way, in creating a more viable, day-to-day wearable device that you can use in everyday life. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that he expects glasses to eventually replace our phones in many applications, and in this context, Meta is seemingly on the right track.

But a lot, of course, comes down to price, and accessibility of the technology.

Meta’s also been hard at work on this aspect. When Apple released the VisionPro last year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg subtly jibed that the product showcased “the difference in the values and the vision that our companies bring”, while also criticizing the low value of the product, in comparison to the Meta Quest.   

Meta knows that adoption is key to dominating the market, which is why it’s been hesitant to talk price on the Orion as yet. But Zuckerberg’s confident that the glasses will be available for a price “comparable to the phones and laptops of today” at some stage in the next five years.

But essentially, Meta has increased motivation to reduce the price, and maximize take-up, as part of its broader metaverse vision.

We’ve already seen this with its Quest headsets, which keep dropping in price, despite the technology improving. Because Meta needs more people engaging in its VR experiences, like Horizon Worlds, in order to get more people to join in, and as such, it arguably has more reason than the other players in the space to take a hit on cost, in favor or longer-term gain.

Meta’s going to make money from in-app purchases linked to digital experiences and events. Snap and Apple will be able to offer some of the same, but not at the scale that Meta’s exploring, and eventually, it does seem like Meta’s more likely to maximize take-up due to a critical mass of users and engagement.

Which is the lesson that it’s learned from social apps, and it’s that approach that’ll likely force VisionPro out of the race, if the initial price tag hasn’t already price Apple out of the AR/mixed reality market.

But we don’t know yet, because Meta is still negotiating the best consumer price. But given the rising take-up of its Ray Ban smart glasses Meta knows what people are willing to pay for similar devices, and that could see it better placed to capitalize on market opportunities.

Which is another consideration, in that Meta now has a distribution network, while its partnership with EssilorLuxottica, the maker of Ray Ban, will also help it build more consumer-friendly AR glasses.

Snap’s AR Spectacles are nowhere near as attractive, or likely as comfortable, being double the weight. And really, Snap has unwittingly squandered a key lead that it had in this regard, in that it was once the only provider with a viable consumer product network for smart glasses, which it had established to distribute its Spectacles.

Meta was nowhere close to Snap on this front, but the Meta Ray Bans are now a much bigger seller, eliminating that as an advantage.

So, which AR glasses are ultimately going to win, and is consumer AR going to become a real, significant thing?

Well, on balance, Meta seems to be in the best position to maximize its opportunities, while Snap looks set to struggle to keep up with its more well-resourced competitors in the race.

Apple’s VisionPro is a good device by all accounts, but the price tag is just too high to see mass take-up, while Apple’s also not investing in a broader AR/VR ecosystem to connect people within this experience.

Meta seems to be covering all bases, and its glasses are the only ones that you can see anyone viably wearing in their day-to-day life.

So Meta does appear to be in the lead, but there’s much development to come, and a lot of things could change.

But is AR actually going to be a thing? I would say that it absolutely is. And while only a small percentage of people have actually had the opportunity to experience these next-level AR devices, the broader trends around the adoption of smart glasses, combined with advances in other, related areas (AI), point to Meta’s long-held, much-criticized metaverse vision looking smarter every day.

For all the hype around AI, and the undeniable potential in various applications, it sure does seem like social apps are grasping for truly valuable use cases.

Or maybe I’m just not seeing it yet, but for me, AI bots that reply in the style of celebrities, or in the voice of celebrities, as per Meta’s latest update, really aren’t it.

Meta’s initial experiment with celebrity-styled AI chatbots in text form failed to resonate with users, which led to it recently shutting down that project.

Because it’s not that interesting, right? A chatbot that gives you the impression that you’re speaking to some celebrity isn’t particularly engaging when you know that it’s not really that celebrity, or indeed any human at all, at the other end of the discussion. It’s just you speaking to the Matrix, and the codebase calculating then returning your answers.

That’s also true for celebrity voiced bots, because whether its dressed up as Billie Eilish, or just responses attached to some generic profile pic, those answers are still gonna be the same. Sure, hearing John Cena respond to random questions is going to be funny among your friends, but that novelty’s going to wear off pretty quick. And again, then it’s just you giggling to yourself. Or maybe trying to convince yourself that you actually are friends with Kristen Bell as her robot voice rings in your ears.

It’s also not social, at least not in the way that we generally understand that term. Social generally refers to human connection, which the whole concept of social media was founded upon.

These offerings are not social, in fact they’re the opposite, in that they invite engagement with nobody else.

And while, again, you might be able to develop a form of relationship with an AI system (and some people already have), that also seems potentially unhealthy, and not something that we should be looking to build for, at least till we know the potential dangers of such.

But that’s not even the limit of Meta’s AI bot projects.

In his Connect keynote yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also previewed the next stage of the company’s AI character platform, which will eventually enable creators to build AI versions of themselves in video form.

So you could be video chatting to your favorite celebrity, and they’ll be able to answer any question you ask them.

Cool, right?

Except, again, this is not actually social, in that you’re not engaging with other people, and it’s not really anything at all. It’s just a video game, with real life characters, which will increasingly look and sound like people you recognize.

And that’s not what the allure of social media has traditionally been.

One of the key benefits of social media is that it does enable you to connect with people from all walks of life, and celebrity connection has played a big part in that. Before social media, your chances of ever engaging with your favorite stars was slim-to-none, but now, you can send them a post or DM, and there’s a slightly better chance that they might actually acknowledge you.

That’s been a valuable driver of fan engagement, and building an audience, but soon, you won’t know whether it was actually them, or an AI bot. Which could actually erode the whole experience.

Though human-like bots of this type have become popular in one format: live shopping streams in China.

The presenters in these examples are all AI-generated bots, which enable brands to sell their products, 24/7, via live streams on Douyin (the local version of TikTok).

As reported by MIT Technology Review:

“Since 2022, a swarm of Chinese startups and major tech companies have been offering the service of creating deepfake avatars for e-commerce livestreaming. With just a few minutes of sample video and $1,000 in costs, brands can clone a human streamer to work 24/7.”

With this, the business simply provides the script and the product details, and the virtual streamer will sell things on their behalf. More advanced versions can even scan the comments for certain responses, and engage with viewers, while they can also change approaches based on how many viewers they have at any given time.

So there is a demand, in some form, for these types of digital doppelgangers. But then again, live shopping hasn’t caught on in Western markets, and it doesn’t seem like this is going to be the trigger that pushes it to the next stage.

Essentially, Meta’s still throwing AI ideas at the wall, and seeing what sticks. But I just don’t see how moving away from the “social” aspects of its products is a viable strategy for future usage.

Encouraging more bots pretending to be humans seems like a pathway to a less engaging social media environment. Yet, at the same time, Zuck himself recently noted that, in his view:

“Every part of what we do is going to get changed in some way [by AI]. [For example] feeds are going to go from – you know, it was already friend content, and now it’s largely creators. In the future, a lot of it is going to be AI generated.”

So Meta believes that more and more AI-generated content is coming to our social feeds, one way or another.

Is that a good thing? Will that drive more engagement?

AI as a practical assistant that can help you uncover relevant answers is one thing, but AI as an engagement option? A virtual relationship?  

That feels like something else.

It’s Meta Connect day, where Meta has provided a heap of updates on its latest technological advancements, including new Quest VR headsets, AR glasses, an updated Llama AI model, new gen AI options in its apps, and more.

There’s a heap to get through, and a heap to consider. Here’s an overview of all the big announcements from Meta’s latest showcase.

Orion AR Glasses

The star of the show was Meta’s first AR glasses, called “Orion”, which it’s been developing over the past five years.

Meta says that this is the “most advanced pair of AR glasses ever made”, and the result of complex efforts to compress the required components into a small enough format that they can viably be worn as regular glasses.

As you can see in the above image, the Orion glasses, as they currently stand, come with a wrist control, “for subtle, socially acceptable input”, as well as a wireless battery pack.

Meta says that Orion has “the largest field of view in the smallest AR glasses form to date”, and will enable a range of immersive experiences, from “multitasking windows and big-screen entertainment to life-size holograms of people”.

The glasses themselves are chunkier than regular sunglasses, and far more so than Meta’s own Ray Ban smart glasses. But again, Meta’s had to squeeze a lot of tech into a very small space.

So you sort of look like an eccentric fashion designer when wearing them. though you likely won’t be wearing these ones just yet.

Meta’s not releasing its AR glasses to the public at this stage, but it is giving them to selected developers and internal Meta staff for testing.

So these examples are more to show just how far the technology has developed, but they may not be exactly what Meta releases as AR glasses in the next few years.

That could mean that the actual consumer version looks even less solid, and more stylish, via Meta’s partnership with Ray Ban maker EssilorLuxottica.

But essentially, the main crux of Meta’s showcase today was to underline that neither Apple, with its VisionPro, or Snap, with its latest AR glasses, are beating it on this front.

Meta’s AR glasses will be more capable than Snap’s, and more viable (and likely cheaper) than Apple’s version.

We’re not there yet, but Meta’s AR expansion is getting close.

New Functionality for Ray Ban Meta Glasses

Speaking of Meta’s Ray Ban smart glasses, they’re also getting upgrades, with improved voice commands, so you can hold a conversation with Meta AI (without having to continually say “Hey Meta”), and the capacity to record and send voice messages on the go.

Also:

“We’re adding the ability for your glasses to help you remember things. Next time you fly somewhere, you don’t have to sweat forgetting where you parked at the airport – your glasses can remember your spot in long-term parking for you.”

That could be particularly handy, while Meta’s also adding a new translations feature, which will listen to the language being spoken around you, and translate it into English in via the open-ear speakers.

Now you’ll be able to confirm whether people are talking trash about you in another language, or if you’re just paranoid.

Quest 3S

Meta’s also announced its latest Quest VR headset, with the 3S model providing the same capabilities as the Quest 3, but at a lower price point.

“Starting at just $299.99 USD, Quest 3S is the best headset for those new to mixed reality and immersive experiences, or who might have been waiting for a low-cost upgrade from Quest and Quest 2.”

Meta says that it’s rebuilt its Horizon OS, so it now offers better support for key 2D apps “like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram”. It’s also improved the spatial audio Passthrough elements.

Essentially, it’s a juiced up version of Meta’s best VR headset, but it’s also cheaper, which is key to maximizing adoption.

Indeed, Meta’s also dropping the price of the 512GB Meta Quest 3 unit by $150 (to $499.99 USD), which will ideally see more people taking up its VR hardware, and expanding its user community.

The more adoption VR sees, the more momentum it gets, and while it’s still a ways from being a must-have technology, advanced systems, and new experiences, are helping to build the foundations of Meta’s VR and metaverse vision.

Celebrity Voices for Meta AI

Okay, I don’t know why Meta think s that this is a key pathway to broader AI adoption, but for some reason, Meta’s also added celebrity voices to its AI chatbot.

So the main addition is that you can now use your voice to talk to Meta AI on Messenger, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram DM, and it’ll respond back to you out loud.

But you can also now choose a celebrity voice for your Meta AI chatbot, including AI variations of stars like Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan Michael Key and Kristen Bell.

So when you get an answer from the system, it’ll sound like a celebrity. Cool right?

No doubt this will be an interesting novelty, but I just don’t see why Meta thinks this is a valuable addition.

I mean, it’s already tried this, with celebrity-styled AI chatbots, which it eventually shut down because no one cared, while it’s also giving influencers the opportunity to create AI bots in their likeness, that respond to fans on their behalf.

I don’t see why that’s engaging, because you’re not actually communicating with these celebrities and creators, just AI variations of them. Is that what people want? Evidently, it isn’t, but Meta’s pushing ahead either way.

What’s more, Meta reportedly paid millions of dollars for the rights to use these celebrity voices.  

Yeah, I don’t think that this will be a big thing, but maybe some super fans of Dame Judi Dench will get a kick out of having a robot version of her answering their Meta AI queries.

Meta AI Image Context

Meta’s also building on its AI utility, with Meta AI now able to provide answers based on visual cues.

As you can see in this example, Meta’s AI chatbot is now better able to understand visual elements, so it can provide answers based on these elements.

The system can also now provide edits to existing images too, so you can ask for it to, say, add things into a picture.

You can also ask it to remove or change certain elements in an image, and it’ll be better able to facilitate such requests.

“And if you want to reshare a photo from feed to your Instagram Story, Meta AI’s new backgrounds feature can take a look at your photo, understand what’s in the image and generate a fun background for the story.”

AI translations

Meta’s also rolling out AI translations for Reels, so creators can reach a broader audience with their content.

The audio translations will simulate the speakers’ voice in another language, and sync their lips to match, which should make it a more authentic translation experience.

Meta says that it’s testing this with selected creators on Instagram and Facebook to begin with.

More AI

Meta’s also expanding its “Imagine” AI feature, providing more ways for people to create fantastical AI depictions of themselves within its post composer options.

It’s also adding AI generated chat themes in Messenger and IG DMs, along with recommended AI content, customized to your interests.

AI for Business

Meta will also enable more businesses to create their own AI chatbots, powered by its advanced AI models, which will be available via click-to-message ads on WhatsApp and Messenger.

“From answering common customer questions to discussing products and finalizing a purchase, these business AIs can help businesses engage with more customers and increase sales.”

That could be an easy way to maximize customer engagement, and provide immediate response and service 24/7.

Meta also says that more advertisers are adopting its generative AI ad tools, with more than 15 million ads created with them in the last month.

“On average, ad campaigns using Meta’s generative AI ad features resulted in an 11% higher click-through rate and 7.6% higher conversion rate compared to campaigns that didn’t use the features.”

More Meta advertisers have reported success with Meta’s Advantage+ campaigns, and as its AI systems continue to improve, it seems that they are driving better results.

A heap of things to consider, and Meta’s also launched a new version of its Llama language model as well, which will enable expanded development opportunities.

Many things happening at Meta HQ, which will all have varying levels of interest and impact.   

As TikTok begins its legal defense against its enforced sell-off in the U.S., which it says will ultimately lead to the removal of the app in the region, support for the TikTok sell-off is waning over time, as the actual end date nears.

Several prominent Americans have expressed their opposition to the TikTok bill, including Presidential candidate Donald Trump, who’s vowed to “save TikTok” if he wins the November poll.

And maybe that’s what’s leading this new shift, but as you can see in the below visualization, created by Visual Capitalist, overall support for the sell-off push has dropped significantly since it was originally proposed in March last year.

Will that prompt a change in course from U.S. regulators? I would say this is unlikely, given the current state of play. But it is interesting to see how Americans from both sides of the political aisle have shifted their opinion on the app.

Maybe the U.S. Government needs to release more info on the actual threat posed by the app, and how U.S. users are impacted by such.

The next stage of Elon Musk’s X project is here, with X now officially requesting legal recognition of Bastrop, Texas as its new home base.

According to a court filing in X’s legal dispute with former CNN anchor Don Lemon, X has now requested to change the location of its head office to Bastrop, which is also home to SpaceX and The Boring Company.

As reported by Forbes:

“Last month, X updated a number of incorporation documents to reflect the Bastrop address, show exhibits filed by the company. Musk is requesting that litigation in the Lemon lawsuit be allowed to proceed in Texas.”

Which is no surprise.

Back in July, Musk announced that X would be leaving its long-held San Francisco HQ, due to Musk’s personal disagreement with law changes in the state relating to gender identification among kids.

Musk had also highlighted safety concerns in the city, while with 80% fewer staff, X also no longer has the need for such an expansive office space.

Last month, X informed staff that it would be vacating its San Francisco building within weeks, with staff to be re-deployed to offices in San Jose, Palo Alto, and Texas.

And now, Texas has been confirmed as the official home base for the company, bringing it more into line with Musk’s other projects.

The new X head office is located in “Hyperloop Plaza”, which is a shopping center complex owned by Musk. X is also currently hiring for a new safety center in the region, with the majority of X staff to eventually be shifted to the new address.

It’s the end of an era for the company formerly known as Twitter, which had become synonymous with San Francisco as part of the broader Silicon Valley movement. But now, the company is being realigned in Musk’s vision, while closer linkage to Elon’s other projects (most notably xAI) will enable him to more easily share resources and expertise across his various initiatives.

The external impact will likely be limited. X has already implemented a significant shift in its content moderation approach, and that’s had a big effect on the broader feel of the app. But in terms of development, having Elon’s various entities working more closely alongside each other is only going to benefit their collective development, as various groups focus on different projects across the different companies.

Within reason, and what’s allowed by the board and external regulations on such. Elon’s already sharing hardware between his organizations, which has raised some eyebrows, but having all of these systems working in closer conjunction will enable greater collaboration of this type.

But that does also shut the door on what had been Twitter. The physical relocation is essentially the full stop on the Twitter story, with X now taking over in that space.

There’s no doubt that the platform formerly known as Twitter has lost some of its allure under Elon Musk, with many formerly active niche communities now switching to other platforms instead.

Yet, even so, X remains a key consideration for many, and a habitual connector on certain topics.

Which topics exactly? Check out this chart:

Yes, while political news seems to be the star of the show on X on any given day, it’s actually its connection to sports communities that remains its key differentiator, with many sports fans still turning to the platform to get the latest supplementary updates and news, while watching real-time sports coverage.

Politics is still a major focus, at fifth on the list, while “News” is also a key topic of discussion. But sports, gaming, music, and (for some reason) food remain more important to X’s overall conversational health than Elon’s own political rantings.

Which, given the constant attention that his various opinions get, is surprising, and points to the value of X as a means for high-profile users to amplify their opinions.   

The chart was included in a new pitch deck that X is sharing with selected ad partners, as it looks to win back ad spend heading into the last three months of the year. X recently hired a new global head of marketing to spearhead this effort, and according to Digiday, it’s now looking to showcase its value to prospective ad partners, with a focus on real-time connection during breaking events.

Its main offering on this front is its new “Trend Genius” ads which it launched back in July. Trend Genius uses conversational AI to detect rising topics of discussion in the app, and enables brands to then amplify their promotions within topically related peaks, in order to maximize engagement.

X is looking to showcase this as a key value add, based specifically on these topics of focus.

As you can see in this overview, X is also pushing brands to incorporate its Grok AI chatbot to assist in campaign planning, by highlighting keywords to incorporate into a Trend Genius campaign.

That will then enable brands to boost their promotions at key times, based on systematic detection.

It could be a good option, depending on how it works, and if it can help brands tap into these various topical spikes, that could be the best way to link into relevant conversations, at the right times, in the app.

Essentially, it’s “newsjacking” or “trendjacking”, but in a more focused way. So rather than trying to latch onto a topic by including a random hashtag, in order to get into that conversation stream, this enables the same type of approach, in a more focused, targeted way.

The question then is whether advertisers will be open to returning to the app, given the ongoing drama stemming from its updated moderation approach.

According to reports, X’s ad revenue has declined significantly since Musk took over in 2022, with Musk’s own divisive comments sparking increased concerns about brand safety in ad placement. Various reports have also shown that X is indeed showing ads alongside controversial content, while a recent survey conducted by Kantar also found that 26% of marketers actually plan to decrease their spending on X further in 2025, despite already scaling back.

With this in mind, X has a task ahead of it to reshape the broader narrative about the app. And with Elon keen to play a part in the U.S. election, that doesn’t look set to change, at least for the rest of this year.

So while X clearly needs more revenue, it’ll be hard-pressed to drive improvement, even with this new Trend Genius offering. It does look like it could be a valuable consideration, but many brands are not even in the consideration stage for X as yet.

But again, X remains a key connector, in many niches, and will be a valuable complement for some time yet. And if Elon and Co. can realign their moderation approach to incorporate advertiser concerns, there may be a way to get the platform back on track.

It’s not looking to do so at this stage, but there are still signs of opportunity.

While there’s a growing body of academic research which suggests that social media can have negative impacts on mental health, there are also positives, including enhanced connection, support, finding interest communities, and more.

But which is more impactful, the negatives associated with social comparison and exposure, or the positives of connectivity.

According to this report commissioned by LG Electronics, the balance is actually fairly split.

As per the data (based on responses from 2,000 Gen Z Americans):

• 75% of respondents associated social media usage with negative impacts on their mental health
• 54% felt that they had little control over the content displayed in their social feeds
• 80% of respondents associated social media with a positive impact on their mood.

So there’s the good and the bad, though it’s interesting to also note that so many people don’t feel like they understand the controls at their disposal to manage their feeds.

On balance, then, it does seem that many people get enjoyment from the short-term dopamine of social media, but the longer term impacts may still be overly negative.

That’s why regulators have had so much difficulty in setting usage rules or parameters, because there are no definitive answers on the true impacts.

You can check out the full study results in the graphic below.

With various regions considering new age limits on social media access, American regulators are also looking to take action, albeit in a less restrictive and enforceable form.

Today, a coalition of over 40 state attorneys general have called on Congress to implement safety labels on social media platforms, which would include warnings of their potential risks to children.

The initiative stems from a proposal put forward by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, in which Murthy 

As per Murthy:

“The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency, and social media has emerged as an important contributor. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours. Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.”

With this in mind, Murthy believes that social platforms should have clear warning tags, much like the labels added to cigarette packaging.

“Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior. When asked if a warning from the surgeon general would prompt them to limit or monitor their children’s social media use, 76 percent of people in one recent survey of Latino parents said yes.”

How that would work, in practice, is another thing. Presumably, an official Surgeon General’s warning would need to be displayed on any download access points, as well as on the home page of the apps themselves.

Would that work in a social media context? I mean, we already know that no one bothers to read the usage agreements, so it seems like kids and parents may also just overlook these tags too. 

In which case, is it worth pushing?

To be clear, Murthy has also proposed more expanded restrictions and processes to protect teen users, beyond just warning tags, including broader protections from harassment, abuse and exploitation, as well as limits on data gathering. So it’s not just these sternly worded panels that Murthy’s suggesting, though his recommendations don’t go as far as restricting social media usage among teens.

Several other regions have proposed exactly that, with Australia being the most recent government to float the concept of social media age limits. Several U.S. states have also explored this path, which makes this new proposal seem like a softened approach. 

But still, 42 state attorneys general have endorsed the plan, and as Murthy notes, maybe, based on other examples, that could at the least prompt more users to consider such impacts before signing up.

The proposal will now go to Congress for further action. 

Because originality is overrated. Or sensitivity around it is. I don’t know.

Either way, this week, TikTok has launched a new option to share a short, text-based “thought” in the app, that’s then displayed in a speech bubble type display on your Stories bubble at the top of your inbox.

As you can see in this example, shared by Jonah Manzano, some TikTok users are now being prompted to add a thought, which is then displayed in their inbox in the top Stories feed.

It’s also shown on your profile image:

Look familiar?

That’s because it’s essentially Instagram Notes, under a different name, and in a different app.

Yes, TikTok’s essentially copying IG’s Notes option, which has been a hit with younger users. But TikTok can’t call its version “Notes” because that’s what it’s already named its separate photo sharing app, which you might argue is also a replica of IG.

I mean, it’s not really, the format and UI are different. But the focus on sill images harks back to Instagram’s history, and could be viewed as another effort by TikTok to branch into what’s traditionally been Instagram’s territory.

But really, both TikTok and IG are pretty much the same app these days anyway.

Sure, people use both TikTok and IG differently, and different audiences will gravitate towards one or the other. But with 50% of the content you see on Instagram now coming via AI recommendations, which are predominantly video clips, the two are very similar in their offerings. Though TikTok’s algorithm is still a little better at responding to your interests.

But the two apps have been copying each other back and forth for so long now that feature replication almost expected, so it’s no surprise to see TikTok also incorporating IG Notes into its experience.

So will it work?

I mean, it has on IG, according to Meta’s reporting anyway, and that may well indicate that it’ll be a winner for TikTok as well. So why not add it, and at the least, try it out?

TikTok’s currently testing the new option out with some users.

This seems like a step back for Elon Musk’s expanding AI ambitions.

While Musk’s xAI project continues to build out its hardware stack, the project has also been forced to exclude EU user data from its data set, after a legal challenge over how the project is utilizing public X data to fuel its language models.

As has long been part of the xAI initiative, the project is using public posts from X to build its models. Those models now power Grok, X’s AI chatbot, and with X recently expanding its “Colossus” AI training system, it looks set to make even more use of this data, as it builds its AI offering.

But EU officials raised concerns about the consent requirements for such under its evolving data privacy laws. Under the GDPR, X is required to seek explicit permission from EU users over the use of their data for additional purpose.

X initially said that such usage was within its existing permissions, and that it would fight the legal challenge, while it also quietly added a new, explicit setting within user account options that gives X permission to use your posts and activity in the app to train its Grok AI chatbot.

But now, it seems that X has conceded that it will need to improve its approach to gaining consent for such. And as a result, it’s decided to exclude public posts from EU users entirely, while it works out next steps.

Which could be a major blow for the app, particularly around European news and updates, and Grok’s capacity to provide answers to related queries. The key selling point for X’s AI bot is that it can provide up-to-the-minute responses on the latest news, based on X chatter, while other AI chatbots are days, even months behind. But without EU input, that’s a lot of potential insight that Grok loses from its response base.

Maybe X has a way around this, and it’s no doubt also working on a new approach to gain EU user consent for model training. But right now, it means that Grok, and xAI’s broader offerings, lose a heap of insight, from around 100 million total users.

Though, then again, X has seen a steady decline in usage in the region.

Maybe, EU user insight is no longer as valuable as it once was in this respect, though 100 million users, or 20% of X’s user base, is a lot of info to be missing.

Presumably, X will come out with a renewed approach on this front shortly.