Slop Social aka Meta AI's Discover Feed
AI Inside for Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Duolingo's bold "AI First" shift, a new study questioning AI's real impact on jobs, and Meta's push to make AI more social.
But first... big thanks to those who support us directly via patreon at PATREON.COM/AIINSIDESHOW, like William Wilkinson! Thank you almighty patrons!
Don’t miss this week’s episode:
Duolingo Goes "AI First"
Duolingo announced, first in an all-hands email to employees and then publicly on LinkedIn, that the company is officially "AI First." CEO Luis von Ahn shared plans to gradually replace contract workers with AI for tasks that can be automated, use AI for hiring and performance reviews, and limit new hires unless automation isn't possible. He emphasized this isn't about replacing full-time employees but acknowledged AI can do in months what would otherwise take years. Duolingo doesn't want to be left behind and will "gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle." Just this morning, Duolingo announced 148 new courses-all created with generative AI-more than doubling its offerings for non-English speakers.
Is AI Really Disrupting Jobs? A Danish Study Says... Not Yet
An economic study in Denmark by economists Anders Humlum and Emilie Vestergaard analyzed the impact of AI chatbots on 11 occupations often cited as vulnerable to automation, including accounting, journalism, and IT support. The study found no significant impact of AI chatbots on earnings or hours worked, and little measurable effect on job loss or wage reduction. Interestingly, new job tasks like reviewing AI output often offset the time savings from automation, and productivity gains were marginal-users saved only 2.8% of their work hours. The study covered 25,000 workers in Denmark during 2023-2024, but with AI moving so fast, is it just too early to see the real impact?
The Rise and Fall of Prompt Engineering
The Wall Street Journal reports that prompt engineering-a role that was highly valued just two years ago for coaxing the best results from AI models-has rapidly faded. As AI systems have become more sophisticated, better at understanding user intent, and able to ask clarifying questions, the need for dedicated prompt engineers has diminished. Surveys now show this job title ranking near the bottom of emerging AI roles, with AI trainers, data specialists, and security specialists taking precedence. My how quickly things change in the world of AI!
Meta’s New AI App and the Social Twist
LlamaCon is underway, and Meta has announced its standalone Meta AI app. It offers familiar features like chatting, image generation, and real-time web results, but adds a social twist: the Discover feed lets users see, like, comment on, and remix how others interact with Meta AI. This approach is meant to make Meta's AI more transparent and collaborative, sharing real-world creations and the prompts that made them. The app is personalized using data from Facebook and Instagram, offers full-duplex voice interaction, and is built on the Llama 4 model. It even integrates features from Meta's Ray-Ban companion app-Zuckerberg wore his Ray-Bans in a video about the new app and on stage with Satya Nadella. Social suddenly hot again?
Microsoft’s AI Code Claims: 20-30% Written by AI
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella joined Zuckerberg on stage at LlamaCon for a fireside chat (ever notice there's never a fire at these fireside chats?). Zuckerberg asked Nadella how much of Microsoft’s code is generated by AI, and Nadella claimed 20-30% of code in Microsoft’s repositories is now "written by software"-that is, by AI. He noted mixed results: Python is thriving, while C++ less so. Zuckerberg didn’t have an answer for Meta. This high percentage is being met with skepticism, with many pointing out Microsoft’s software is already buggy enough. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott recently predicted 95% of code will be AI-generated in five years.
OpenAI Adds Shopping to ChatGPT
OpenAI introduced a new shopping feature within ChatGPT. Users can search for, compare, and start the purchase process within the chat interface, though checkout happens on the retailer’s site. The feature is available to all users, even those not signed in. ChatGPT says product recommendations are organic and based on user preferences, previous interactions, and a blend of editorial and user-generated reviews-not keyword-driven. Affiliate revenue might be part of the future, but isn’t included in the initial rollout.
University of Zurich’s Secret Reddit AI Experiment
Researchers from the University of Zurich secretly conducted an unauthorized experiment on Reddit’s r/changemyview subreddit, using AI-generated comments to persuade users on sensitive issues. They impersonated various personas, including trauma counselors and sexual assault survivors, posting over 1,700 comments. The experiment violated Reddit’s terms of service and the subreddit’s rules due to lack of disclosure, leading to major pushback over ethical and legal concerns. Reddit banned the involved accounts and announced formal legal action. The university decided not to publish the results and plans to review its ethical processes.
Interview Preview: The AI Con with Emily Bender & Alex Hanna
Jeff and I had a wonderful conversation with Emily Bender and Alex Hanna, co-authors of the upcoming book The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want. The full interview hits the podcast feed and YouTube channel this Saturday, May 3rd.
On today’s show, we play a clip where Emily and Alex discuss which applications of language AI make a positive difference, why community control and transparency matter, and why big tech’s “one-size-fits-all” approach falls short-especially for underrepresented languages. One big takeaway: how easy it is to throw around "AI" as a catch-all, and Emily offers a more accurate way to describe these systems in the full interview.
HUGE thank you to Executive Producers on the Patreon:
DrDew, Jeffrey Marraccini, WPVM 103.7 in Asheville NC, Dante St James, Bono De Rick, Jason Neiffer, and Jason Brady!!
Thank you for watching and reading! See you next time on another episode of AI Inside!