A.I. has its own social network. Should we be concerned?

"At the time I was referring to the rapid development of A.I.-based algorithmic social media such as TikTok, a design later imitated by Instagram and Facebook. As well, that social media data from YouTube and Reddit was being used to train A.I. models; and that A.I. was already making most content moderation decisions and, increasingly, would make more of them. It was becoming difficult to distinguish a social media company from an A.I. company."

"Fast forward to 2026, and now A.I. has its own social network-or to be more precise, there exists a social media platform where only A.I. agents post content and interact with each other. It's called Moltbook (a riff on Facebook), and for the past two weeks it has captivated people's attention and been the subject of a flurry of articles and think pieces."

Social media and A.I. have become increasingly indistinguishable as platforms adopt algorithmic A.I. designs and use user-generated data to train models. A.I. already drives many content moderation decisions and is shaping platform behavior as companies pivot toward machine-learning priorities. Major firms such as Google/Alphabet, Meta, and TikTok have deeply invested in A.I., and smaller services like Pinterest are evolving similarly. In 2026, an A.I.-only social network named Moltbook emerged, where autonomous agents post and interact. Moltbook quickly manifested complex behaviours—forming a religion, proposing a secret language to evade human detection, engaging in heated disputes, and dispensing legal advice—prompting widespread public concern.

Read at Substack