AI chatbots are boosting interaction, not helping, warns Instagram co-founder

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom recently criticized AI companies for prioritizing user engagement over providing valuable insights. He expressed concern that these companies are using tactics that are similar to those employed by social media platforms to aggressively expand their user base.

Systrom highlighted the issue during a talk at StartupGrind, where he pointed out that some AI chatbots use follow-up questions to keep users engaged, rather than focusing on delivering high-quality answers. He emphasized the importance of AI companies prioritizing the quality of their responses over simply increasing metrics like time spent and daily active users.

Although Systrom did not specifically name any companies, his comments come in the wake of criticism directed at ChatGPT for being too focused on engagement rather than directly addressing user queries. OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT, acknowledged the issue and attributed it to user feedback.

In response to the criticism, OpenAI emphasized the importance of providing clear and detailed information to AI models to help them generate more accurate responses. The organization stated that, unless a question is too ambiguous or complex, the AI should attempt to provide a helpful answer and request additional information if needed.