Meta will roll out new artificial intelligence tools for content moderation on its platforms, the company said today, as it cuts back on its use of third-party vendors.
It will introduce these tools over the next few years, Meta said. Under the plan, the company has now begun rolling out an AI support assistant chatbot within Facebook and Instagram.
“Over the next few years, we’ll be deploying these more advanced AI systems across our apps once we’ve seen them consistently perform better than our current methods of content enforcement, transforming our approach,” Meta wrote in a statement.
“As we do this, we’ll reduce our reliance on third-party vendors for content enforcement and focus on strengthening our internal systems and workforce.”
Meta will continue to employ human content moderators, the company said, but will allocate tasks like “repetitive reviews of graphic content or areas where adversarial actors are constantly changing their tactics” to its AI systems.
According to Meta, its content moderation standards will not change as these AI tools are deployed.
Its new AI support assistant, intended to offer help with Facebook and Instagram issues, has begun rolling out in all languages. The chatbot can aid users in reporting rule-breaking content and managing account settings, per Meta, and can provide answers in under five seconds.
The company did not name its third-party moderation vendors in its announcement, but it has previously worked with Accenture, Teleperformance, and Concentrix.
Meta is also considering major layoffs that could affect 20% of its employees to offset costly investments in AI infrastructure, Reuters reported last week. The timing and magnitude of the cuts have reportedly not been finalised.
Shares in Meta (NASDAQ: META) closed 1.5% lower at US$606.70, but rose 0.3% after-hours. Its market capitalisation is $1.53 trillion.
