Instagram head Adam Mosseri stated that AI will change who can be creative. He believes new tools and technology will empower people who previously could not be creators, allowing them to produce content at a certain quality and scale. However, he also admitted that bad actors will use the technology for nefarious purposes. He added that children growing up today will need to be taught that you cannot believe something just because you saw a video of it.
The Meta executive shared his thoughts on how AI is impacting the creator industry at the Bloomberg Screentime conference this week. At the start of the interview, Mosseri was asked to address recent comments from creator MrBeast. On Threads, MrBeast had suggested that AI-generated videos could soon threaten creators’ livelihoods and called it scary times for the industry.
Mosseri pushed back on that idea, noting that most creators will not use AI technology to reproduce what MrBeast does with his huge sets and elaborate productions. Instead, he said AI will allow creators to do more and make better content.
He explained that the internet allowed almost anyone to become a publisher by reducing the cost of distributing content to essentially zero. He said that generative AI models look like they will reduce the cost of producing content to basically zero. This perspective does not reflect the true financial, environmental, and human costs of using AI, which are substantial.
The executive also suggested there is already a lot of hybrid content on major social platforms, where creators use AI in their workflow without producing fully synthetic content. For example, they might use AI tools for color corrections or filters. Going forward, Mosseri said the line between what is real and what is AI generated will become even more blurred. He believes there will be more content in the middle than pure synthetic content for a while.
As things change, Mosseri said Meta has some responsibility to do more in terms of identifying AI-generated content. But he also noted that the company’s initial approach was not the right focus and was practically a fool’s errand. He was referring to when Meta tried to label AI content automatically, which led to real content being mislabeled because AI tools were used as part of the creation process.
The executive said the labeling system needs more work, but Meta should also provide more context to help people make informed decisions. While he did not elaborate, he may have been considering systems like Community Notes, a crowdsourced fact-checking feature launched in the US. This system marks content with corrections or context when users with opposing opinions agree it is needed. Meta could be weighing the use of such a system for flagging unlabeled AI content.
Mosseri suggested that society itself will have to change, not just the platforms. He explained that his young children need to understand that seeing a video of something does not mean it actually happened. When he grew up, a video could be assumed to capture a real moment. His children will need to think about who is saying something, who is sharing it, what their incentives are, and why they might be saying it.
In the discussion, Mosseri also touched on other topics about Instagram’s future beyond AI. This includes plans for a dedicated TV app and a newer focus on Reels and direct messages as core features, which he said just reflects user trends. He also commented on how TikTok’s changing ownership in the US will impact the competitive landscape. He said that competition is better, as TikTok’s US presence has forced Instagram to do better work. Regarding the TikTok deal, Mosseri said it is hard to parse, but it seems the app’s fundamental build will not meaningfully change. He stated that the new TikTok US operation is the same app, with the same ranking system, creators, and people, making the transition seamless with no major change in incentives.