Sunday, August 3, 2025

AI chatbots are ‘juicing engagement’ as a substitute of being helpful, Instagram co-founder warns

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom says AI firms try too exhausting to “juice engagement” by pestering their customers with follow-up questions, as a substitute of offering truly helpful insights.

Systrom stated the ways characterize “a pressure that’s hurting us,” evaluating them to these utilized by social media firms to broaden aggressively. 

“You’ll be able to see a few of these firms happening the rabbit gap that every one the buyer firms have gone down in making an attempt to juice engagement,” he stated at StartupGrind this week. “Each time I ask a query, on the finish it asks one other little query to see if it will possibly get yet one more query out of me.”

The feedback come amid criticism of ChatGPT for being too good to customers as a substitute of instantly answering their questions. OpenAI has apologized for the issue and blamed “short-term suggestions” from customers for it.

Systrom prompt that chatbots being overly participating is just not a bug however an intentional characteristic designed for AI firms to point out off metrics like time spent and each day lively customers. AI firms must be “laser-focused” on offering high-quality solutions slightly than shifting metrics within the easiest method doable, he stated.

Systrom didn’t identify any particular AI firms in his remarks. He didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

In response, OpenAI pointed TechCrunch to its person specs, which state that its AI mannequin “usually doesn’t have the entire info” to supply a great reply and will ask for “clarification or extra particulars.”

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However except questions are too obscure or tough to reply, the AI ought to “take a stab at fulfilling the request and inform the person that it may very well be extra useful with sure info,” the specs learn.

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