How AI influences what you see on Facebook, Instagram – Times of India

There are times when it gets rather freaky on Facebook and Instagram. You might be talking about that biking trip to Leh or about picking up that cool pair of sneakers. In a matter of minutes, you end up seeing certain ads or promoted posts about Ladakh or a sneaker store in your Facebook feed. That’s because the algorithms are at play and there’s artificial intelligence as well. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has now given an explanation on how AI ends up influencing what you see. Meta says that it wants to “challenge the myth that algorithms leave people powerless over the content they see.”
In a blog post, Nick Clegg, president, global affairs, Meta, explained how AI plays a key role in what you see. “Our AI systems predict how valuable a piece of content might be to you, so we can show it to you sooner. For example, sharing a post is often an indicator that you found that post to be interesting, so predicting that you will share a post is one factor our systems take into account,” Clegg explained.
He said that there’s no single prediction to gauge what’s valuable to a user. “We use a wide variety of predictions in combination to get as close as possible to the right content, including some based on behaviour and some based on user feedback received through surveys.”
People’s experience with Meta’s products is personalised based on their activity, because not everyone likes or dislikes the same things, and interests may change over time, the company said.

You can change what you see

Meta has released 22 system cards which tell people how AI is at work in their feed. These system cards give information about how AI systems rank content, some of the predictions each system makes to determine what content might be most relevant to you, as well as the controls you can use to help customise your experience. “They cover Feed, Stories, Reels and other surfaces where people go to find content from the accounts or people they follow,” Clegg said.
Further, Meta has created centralised places on Facebook and Instagram where users can customise controls that influence the content they see on each app. “You can visit your Feed Preferences on Facebook and the Suggested Content Control Center on Instagram through the three-dot menu on relevant posts, as well as through Settings,” added Clegg.