Artificial Intelligence (AI) influences our daily lives on multiple levels. We can’t imagine our life without our smartphones. It isn’t because we will miss calling or texting anyone, (for which the phone is actually intended for). We will miss the functions of it. A phone performs the functions of an alarm, a calendar, an assistant and so on. We liked the autocorrect function when we saw it first. It even startled us in a good way. We get that way when the exact product we have been thinking about buying, comes up in an advertisement on our social media page. We like the way our phone remembers details about us and hands out to us when we need them the most.
Anyone who knows a little about technology will know that these technological advancements were possible because of AI. Even though computers performed functions complex to the human brain, the knowledge about AI started spreading only in the 1950s. AI has been shaped into what we have now through the combined efforts of many engineers’ brains. AI enables machines to continue learning from people by themselves. Deep learning and Machine Learning mechanisms help with that function. AI combined with such mechanisms finds multiple purposes, especially in social media.
Yes, social media is the greatest reason why people can't live without phones. People from different age groups bond with it. It has become such an integral part of human life and there is no denying it. Let us get into more details on how AI impacts social media to get insights on how to make the most of it.
Human beings are social animals. We live in communities. As the size of the world shrinks (metaphorically ;)), our methods of communicating and living in communion has evolved. People feel more close to each other even when separated by miles and we can share anything from any part of the world. That is why social media has become an essential need. Growing companies have understood the necessity of having social media accounts. That is why it is reported that almost 98% of companies have social media accounts.
Now, when it comes to terms of usage, Instagram tops them all. It is followed by Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest in random order. Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are the platforms commonly used for promoting business activities.
More than 1 billion people use Instagram daily. It is available in 32 languages. A mere exposition to any other language needs the help of AI. AI has made it possible to incur information even from bilingual conversations. Instagram was mainly developed to share pictures. Keeping in mind, the privacy concerns faced in Facebook, Instagram was created with an aim to focus on sharing only pictures. It allows us to add details to the posts in forms of description and hashtags. Being a safe platform, Instagram motivates the general audience to be more involved. Face learning and Deep learning mechanisms aid Instagram to map faces and come up with a suggestion list. Besides that, the most significant use of Instagram is promoting products. It started the trend of getting more followers, which in business terms, means more profit. As of now, Cristiano Ronaldo, the most followed person on Instagram has over 250 million followers on Instagram.
Role of Influencers in Instagram
Influencers use Instagram to boost their Social media ROI. This creates more employment opportunities and increases market reach. Deep neural networks help in understanding patterns much similar to the human brain. That is how, Instagram suggests pages to follow, based on our search results traffic. There could be more famous influencers, but an AI-empowered CGI character Miquela is a milestone on AI influencing social media. Starting as an Instagram account in 2016, Miquela has managed to bag brand endorsements of leading fashion companies.
Instagram is owned by Facebook. The promotional activities in both media go hand-in-hand. Facebook facilitates sharing videos and texts in the form of blogs and articles. A new addition to Facebook is DeepFace. It is said that AI aids Facebook in recognizing faces up to 98 per cent accuracy which is not even possible by a human. This is how Facebook recommends us known faces. Another noteworthy feature is DeepText. It aids Facebook to recognize texts in images and videos.
Facebook Alt Text
An important addition to Facebook is its Facebook Alt Text. It serves the noble notion of explaining a video or an image in the text to help visually impaired people. AI uses Image recognition and Pattern recognition to achieve this. This invention can lead to a revolution in the creation of devices to help physically impaired people.
Twitter uses AI for multiple purposes. First of all, the tweets are arranged in stacks using AI. Initially, they were arranged in reverse chronological order. The arrangement pattern is learned by using Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning mechanisms. Natural Language Processing (NLP) helps in understanding the content. This is how Twitter has been able to filter its content and remove hateful or harmful accounts with the help of Data Analysis. Sentiment Analysis aids in identifying negative words. Sweeping through such a large amount of data is only possible by AI. Text Mining and Social Listening mechanisms of AI aid in filtering data. It is amazing how new advancements in Social media are becoming tough to cope with AI course creators. The CEO of Intellipaat, Diwakar Chittora says that they have 2-4 assignments focussed upon use of AI in these platforms and with newer platforms like TikTok they might have to add more.
There are several misleading myths about the use of AI in social media or in general. Let us get past and clear those assumptions to gain the most use of AI.
1. AI vs. ML
Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science. Machine Learning is a mechanism adopted by AI. It is the study of algorithms and statistical models used by computer systems. It is used for carrying out instructions based on patterns observed. ML algorithms are used for constructing models based on trained data. This technique is used by social media developers to observe a large amount of raw data and use it for specific purposes.
2. What is more important?
This is the question that many have in comparison with data and algorithms. When it comes to AI, data is significant. Thanks to AI, there is no need for explicit programming for carrying out instructions. ML as an AI technology helps in learning from experiences. That is why historical data is needed.
3. Does AI suit all?
Well, think about having to come up with an entire playlist on Spotify or YouTube. On a hard day, it would be extremely difficult but much needed. Now, I love Spotify. I love the quality of the music, my personalized playlist and everything. It would be nothing without the auto-generated music recommendations. We know how this is made possible, AI.
4. But, Is AI Empathetic?
This is a question posed by many. People will be naturally concerned when any technological advancement takes place. It is of general assumption that humans are capable of making better decisions than AI. It is because of applying emotional quotient with profound knowledge. We also get the help of inward intuition passed onto us by generation. But, let us not forget that AI practices human intelligence. If not now, machines exhibiting emotions as much as humans are not far away. For now, AI algorithms are developed to understand human needs through DeepText and Deep Learning. AI sorts through our text messages, and any cache data in the form of commonly searched page results and cookies. Social Media applications such as YouTube coming up with a feature to set time reminders is one such example.
5. What will it change?
There might be a bit of a cultural shift in society. More access to our social media accounts will enable AI to be more than a dormant observer. The relationship between machines and human beings can increase. AI for social media can bring harmony by understanding behavioural patterns of our society and acting accordingly.
The evolution of AI has led to the generation of more personalized content. While it may benefit in business and marketing strategies, there is a need for customizing data when it comes to social media. Automated bots and AI-induced assistants are a boon, made possible only with the help of AI. Social Media marketers can make use of such assistants to improvise their marketing strategies. Machine Learning algorithms are developed with the purpose of observing patterns in human behaviour. Data Analysis and Sentiment Analysis can be performed to crop and cut down the necessary data from the pool of information available over social media.
Although there is a need for more customization, the functions performed with the help of existing AI mechanisms are impeccable. AI uses Text Mining to answer emails already. There are companies employing AI aided customer service. In near future, almost all of the service-oriented jobs can be performed by AI-enabled machines or robots. These advancements are only because of Social Listening, Image recognition and Pattern recognition skills displayed by AI. Already, AI has learnt to sort through social media data to identify hurtful or racist comments and remove accounts spreading negativity (Twitter).
Bringing more customization into social media content will only make the world a better place. It is high time to revolutionize social media through complete adaptation of AI for safe and thriving media communication.
