In a recent third-quarter earnings call, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a startling prediction about the future of social media: platforms like Instagram and Facebook will be flooded with vast amounts of artificially generated content. He defined this trend as the “third era” of social media development, heralding an imminent content revolution led by AI. Facing Wall Street’s skepticism regarding Meta’s substantial capital expenditures in the AI field, Zuckerberg firmly stated that this is an all-in bet the company must make; Meta simply cannot afford to miss the opportunity to seize the growth dividends of the AI era.
Zuckerberg reviewed the two main phases of social media development. The first phase was dominated by content from friends, family, and already followed accounts, where users shared snippets of life and built social connections through the platform. Subsequently, social media entered the era of creator content, where various types of creators attracted fans and built influence through carefully crafted content. Now, Zuckerberg believes we are standing on the threshold of the third era, where massive amounts of AI-generated content will become the new pillar of social media. Meta plans to inject “another massive content library” into its recommendation system, aiming to significantly increase user dwell time and advertising effectiveness, thereby further consolidating its leadership in the social media sphere.
To validate the feasibility of this strategy, Meta launched the AI video content platform “Vibes.” Since its launch in September, Vibes’ performance has been commendable, allowing users to easily generate and share AI-generated videos. According to Meta CFO Susan Li, users have already generated over 20 billion images on Vibes, with weekly retention rates described as “impressive,” indicating high user acceptance and engagement with AI-generated content. Furthermore, downloads of Meta’s flagship AI application surged significantly in mid-October. Within just four weeks, daily active users grew from 775,000 to 2.7 million, with approximately 300,000 daily net new downloads, demonstrating the strong appeal of AI content.
According to the latest news, Zuckerberg emphasized that future recommendation algorithms capable of “deeply understanding” AI-generated content will become highly valuable technology. Such algorithms can not only optimize the ranking of human-original content but also effectively process AI-generated material, thereby enhancing user interaction and commercial monetization efficiency. In other words, Meta hopes that through more precise algorithms, users will more easily encounter AI content that interests them, while advertisers can more effectively reach their target audience, achieving a win-win situation.
However, Meta’s aggressive strategy to expand its AI footprint has also raised concerns on Wall Street. The company raised its 2025 capital expenditure forecast to $70-$72 billion and warned that 2026 expenditures would “increase significantly,” with the core driver remaining AI infrastructure. Several investment banks subsequently lowered their target prices for Meta, with some analysts even comparing the current spending to the “cash-burning” Metaverse strategy of 2021-2022, worrying that the commercial return cycle might be too long, affecting the company’s long-term development.
Addressing Wall Street’s doubts, Zuckerberg argued during the call that Meta has repeatedly encountered situations where rapidly built capacity is quickly exhausted: “We always thought the scale of construction was aggressive enough, but demand always exceeded expectations.” He hinted that the company would rather front-load capital and computing power investments than miss out on user growth opportunities in the AI era. Zuckerberg’s firm stance shows Meta’s strong confidence in the future of AI and its determination to take the lead in this technological race at all costs.
Despite its immense potential, AI-generated content also brings a series of challenges. Firstly, the uneven quality of content could impact the user experience. Ensuring the quality of AI-generated content and preventing the spread of low-quality or false information will be a crucial issue Meta must address.
Clarifying ownership and protecting creators’ rights regarding AI-generated content are urgent issues requiring standardization. Simultaneously, its development brings undeniable ethical challenges, such as the potential use of AI to spread hate speech, conduct disinformation campaigns, or infringe on personal privacy. Prudently addressing these copyright and ethical issues is a necessary prerequisite for Meta’s push to develop AI-generated content.
