Do Androids dream of electric sheep? When the artificial people start interacting with each other, will they know it? (And they will interact. Even if they are programmed to recognize each other, the AI that powers them learns by scraping the internet for content, and there are already problems with AI being contaminated by AI generated content, producing hallucinations.)
We’ve already seen what happens when humans interact in closed bubbles online; what of that process sped up to computer speed?
To use the game analogy – if all the players are bots, turning the game into something a regular human cannot recognize or compete in, what would happen? My guess is the humans would quit playing.
If the AIs are programmed to become people’s “friends” that is more destructive, but still I think self limiting. Herding people into bubbles of the like minded and feeding them select disinformation has been very useful for some. But it has limits as these groups disagree on something like support for Ukraine. And as these bubbles are built on intolerance and rejection of dissent seeming minor differences of opinion turn former friends and influencers to enemies. Soon the bubble has burst. AI friends offer a way to pad the bubble, to keep that sense that “everyone I talk to agrees with what I think” going a little longer. But in the end it just feeds the fragmentation. But how many murders will occur because vulnerable people just did what their artificial friends told the to is hard to say
Current social media is based on segregation and control, while nature rewards cooperation and communication. Social media as it currently exists is a loosing proposition and will fail. The only question is how much damage it does to humanity along the way.