In the FediDevs chatroom Johannes Ernst mentioned the “Godfather of AI” quiting Google so he’d be free to warn of the dangers of AI that lie ahead (discussed on HN yesterday). Given AI trends I expect it will be not be too long before someone develops the “Fediverse App from Hell”, offering AI-driven “manufactured engagement” at scale.
For me the Fediverse as a “personal social network” that facilitates more intimate online social relationships has always been the most attractive part of the fedi, rather than developing towards a decentralized “global public square” alternative to corporate Social Media molochs.
One of the biggest immediate worries of the “AI Godfather”, besides AI autonomous weapon systems, is the complete destruction of the concept of “truth” by a gigantic flood of AI generated misinformation. In the FediDev chatroom Johannes proposes a way to attribute content to its creator such that allows for reputation system to be associated with it (he was just brainstorming, btw).
Though it might be well-implemented and a desirable functionality, imho it still is more of a feature that fits the “global public square” direction. In my vision of a Peopleverse the socialization is more analogous to the offline world where you gradually build human connections based on encounters you have between people. I.e. your prior and continued interaction provide the trust that you deal with real people, not malign AI bots.
Given the coming AI onslaught one general observation wrt. Peopleverse is:
Personal social networking capabilities that establish genuine human interaction will increase signficantly in value.
Thinking about such features and supporting them at protocol levels and in apps will constitute a ‘unique selling point’ for the Fediverse as an online space where human culture thrives.
