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Roughly a month ago, Michael Sayman realized he could finally build the app he\u2019d been thinking about for years: a social network where everyone but you is an AI bot. Large language models are finally good enough and cheap enough that the experience might actually feel social and useful, and not like a gimmick or a game. And so, after years of waiting and months of testing the latest models, Sayman got to work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The app he built is called SocialAI<\/a>, and it has become something of a viral phenomenon<\/a> since it launched. (All he\u2019d tell me is that it was downloaded 20,000 times in the first couple of days \u2014 but says the number has gone up substantially since then.) Some people thought it seemed fun and useful; other people thought it felt deeply dystopian. Is a social network still a social network, they wondered, if you\u2019re the only human present? Still others thought the whole thing was an art project of sorts, a social commentary on the state of the online world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n