As advancements in artificial intelligence continue to captivate the tech world, it’s evident that this trend is not waning anytime soon. Despite varying opinions on generative AI—be it admiration or skepticism—there’s a universal consensus that relying on AI for crafting Instagram comments seems rather absurd.

Nonetheless, Meta seems to be trialing exactly this feature. According to SocialMediaToday, certain users are spotting a novel icon adjacent to the commenting field when they opt to leave feedback on a post. Tapping this pencil-and-star icon reveals a fresh Meta AI menu, offering a selection of comment options likely inspired by the content displayed. For instance, among the suggestions provided by the bot might be: “Charming living room design,” “Adore the inviting vibe,” or “Fantastic photo shoot backdrop.” Could this approach be any more uninspired?

This revelation caught many off-guard. It’s well-known that Meta aggressively promotes its AI initiatives—often with little possibility for users to opt-out. Yet, even as the prevalence of AI-generated material increases on Meta’s platforms, the thought of allowing bots to take over the task of composing comments seemed far-fetched.

It’s hard to believe that a significant number of Instagram users are so preoccupied that they would prefer an AI’s interpretation of what to say rather than putting thought into their own expressions. Given that user-generated comments are often lackluster, the introduction of additional bot-generated comments—this time masquerading as human input—seems unnecessary.

Rethinking AI Decision-Making

At this stage, it’s just an experiment, and likely a transient one. Interestingly, this feature isn’t visible on my Instagram; thus, I must rely on my own creativity for commenting (or perhaps utilize another AI to assist in comment generation). Yet, this experiment highlights a significant flaw in today’s AI development: trying to address issues that aren’t genuinely pressing. Composing comments isn’t a challenging endeavor, so the decision by someone at Meta to explore AI-generated comments raises questions about their motivations. It seems their objective may be to gather more training data for their algorithms, particularly given that many companies face a dearth of data for models to work with. However, surrendering all our human activities to AI is not the answer.

The most frustrating aspect is the gradual transfer of our cognitive responsibilities to machines. As a user of Instagram, you have already allowed algorithms to determine which content appears in your feed. There’s no need to relinquish even more decisions, despite how trivial they might appear. Should you encounter this feature on your account, it is advisable to avoid using it, both for personal engagement and to withhold additional training data that Meta intends to extract from its user community.