Meta wants AI characters to fill up Facebook and Instagram 'kind of in the same way accounts do,' but also had to delete a humiliating first run of its official bots

The conspiratorial "dead internet theory"—that most online activity is just a haze of self-perpetuating algorithmic noise⁠—is not true, yet, but it sure seems like some people really want to get us there as quickly as possible. As reported by 404 Media, Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta has hastily deleted a swathe of experimental AI character accounts that were uncovered after a Meta executive indicated such content was "where we see all of this going."

Speaking to the Financial Times on December 27...