I still don't get it. why would they need an AI model to inflate user counts like this?

There are much simpler ways to create users than spending $100 of millions on gpus. The technology of batch inserting rows into a db, and AI chat bots have existed for a decade.

I’ll explain, but keep in mind that this is an exercise in cynicism, since none of us really know what’s going on.

Currently many tech company stock prices are driven by their potential future with regards to AI. Investors are looking for AI plays, hoping that they’ll generate large returns as Web two companies did.

Meta wants to remain a leader in tech. In order to do that And keep commanding higher and higher stock prices, they need to invest heavily into AI. They would invest into AI with no practical reason as long as it looked good to investors.

Meta is investing heavily into AI without a clear monetization plan, so they need to find a use for it or some “Proof” that it drives the metrics that meta correlates with value.

To that end creating a ton of AI driven engagement is a no-brainer. It shows that the company is forward and has an AI plan and their numbers are growing both things that investors like to see.

The millions spent on GPUs will return billions of dollars shareholder value.

I understand that AI can encourage users to engage more with the platform... but the original idea was that FB would count AI as a user, not that humans would interact more with the AI.

If FB was trying to mislead about their user counts, they don't have to use AI to do that.

They don’t have to, but they can and it’s easy.

They already have to spend the money on AI anyway to keep up in the stock market.

It’d be a way to realize some return on their investment into GPUs.

Doesn't that strategy only work for a temporary amount of time? Surely investors will ask questions when Facebook claims that it has 100 billion active users?