Ash Mufareh
Today, we will be looking into the relationship artificial intelligence has with social media, and how the entire social media landscape will be disrupted with powerful AI. Businesses and organizations have been ideating on how to use artificial intelligence and machine learning technology for moderating content effectively. Numbers speak themselves with more than three billion social media users, 125 million Twitter users, and more than five billion Google search queries.
Machine learning and AI algorithms play a significant role in managing content. Problematic content can be solved with AI-based solutions, and there are many advances made in this field to tackle content moderation and monitoring. Social platforms have adapted themselves to filter postings and teaching machines in recognizing and removing problematic content. Artificial intelligence is primarily utilized in various forms of media such as video, gaming, sounds and images.
Even though AI models are adept at specific tasks and have progressively become more productive, machine learning algorithms cannot yet shoulder the burden of making decisions about questionable content exclusively. Artificial intelligence depends on data sets in processing and making decisions based on the data obtained. Machines are only capable of seeing what has been taught to them, and they are unable to see what isn’t there.
AI algorithms still cannot resolve two types of significant flaws in machine learning, which are:
- Being able to factor in the unknown
- Knowing the seemingly unknowable.
AI-based solutions have come a long way in improving social media; however, there is still a long way to go, especially since a majority of the content is flagged for review, due to wrongful posting by bad actors. They are actively looking to exploit people’s prejudices, their opinions, and affecting their overall behaviour. Today’s users have adapted to evolving standards quickly or completely trying to evade them. Some of the above examples are images, memes, and emojis.
What are the various challenges faced by AI?
AI-based solutions have influenced and improved social media in many different ways. However, there are many challenges that artificial intelligence still faces. Having a human overseeing the process and checking in is always required. Content moderation is not as simple as you think, and it cannot be reduced to merely setting rules that filter certain types of content or filters for obscenities or clusters of words or phrases.
AI-based algorithms need to be taught with principles of emotional intelligence and cultural understanding to ensure a best-in-class experience for users. Judging whether content violates guidelines for decency and social acceptability, not stifling opinions, devaluing world views requires greater contextual understanding which relies on real-world dynamics, based on the post’s emotional tone and subtext. For now, such understanding seems uniquely human, though data scientists are working diligently to develop machine learning that can detect intent and understand the context.
Ads are the main of revenue source for most platforms, and marketers whose advertising budgets include a significant commitment to social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, and they must be aware of the company they keep. Brand owners who fear being associated with problematic content can simply pull their online ads from platforms. Brands have actively refined buying programs using sophisticated decision-making tools—often themselves using AI algorithms. Media buyers are actively improving their own algorithms to whitelist and blacklist publishers.
Conclusion:
Earning the trust of all stakeholders requires social platforms to increase security provisions, implementing compliance standards, and ramping up the ability to manage support requests, in offering a positive user experience. AI provides a great avenue to reduce the complexity of workflows and moderation, which requires algorithms that can flag objectionable content in near real-time based on pre-determined rules. Even though AI it may not be ready for solving complex tasks involving contextual decision-making, it is still the best technological option that we have. Thanks for reading!
