Facebook plans to use artificial intelligence and update its tools and services to help prevent suicides among its users.
Artificial intelligence is touted as the solution to everything these days, but with respect to suicides committed on or because of Facebook, AI feels like a band-aid. The only way Facebook can really help prevent suicides is by making its service less addictive so that users can spend more time in real social circumstances with real people instead of being trapped inside a cold illusion of a social experience spawned from their smart phone. Making FB less addictive, however, will make FB lose revenue because its revenues are tied intimately to the number of eyeballs that are glued to the FB web site. Hence, progress is not profitable. The only benefit to society may be the development of an AI baby sitter. As FB and the rest of “social” media infantilize us all, the market will be briskfor such a product.
Source: Facebook turns to artificial intelligence to tackle suicides