by maxbono | 2025-05-24 15:47:11+00:00
The merger of AI companies with social media platforms is no longer theoretical—it’s real, aggressive, and transformative. By training generative AI models on social media data, firms like xAI and Meta are building more than smarter AI—they're constructing new ecosystems of influence, revenue, and political power.

Let’s unpack what this means—and why it matters now.

Why Merge AI and Social Media?

It’s all about the data.

Social media platforms generate billions of posts, reactions, and interactions daily—making them a goldmine for AI model training. Unlike curated datasets, social data reflects real-time human language, behavior, emotion, and trends.

xAI + X (formerly Twitter): Elon Musk’s $33 billion deal to have xAI acquire X gives the AI company access to one of the world’s largest conversational datasets. As Musk put it:

“Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent.”

Meta + LLaMA: Meta is already training its LLaMA models using Facebook and Instagram data—and even experimenting with inputs from Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Verdict: Strategically sound. The merger is ideal for training—but risky for society.

Is There Room for Disinformation? Absolutely.

Training AI on social media data risks absorbing the worst of the internet:

Misinformation, bots, hate speech, and echo chambers. A study found a 50% increase in hate speech on X after Musk's acquisition. AI trained on this data could unintentionally legitimize and amplify these distortions.

AI models don’t know what’s true—only what’s probable. If false information is statistically frequent, the AI may learn to trust it.

Insight: The AI doesn’t just reflect the world—it can reinforce its worst parts.

Is There a Political Impact? Yes—and It's Growing.

These mergers are not just commercial moves—they're political power plays.

Elon Musk now controls:

X (content and data) xAI (language generation) Starlink (internet infrastructure) And is aligned with political figures like Donald Trump

Meta is no stranger to influence either, playing controversial roles in elections and policy debates worldwide.

"Owning the content platform and the language model is a censorship opportunity," said Jan Penfrat, European Digital Rights.

Bottom line: These companies now influence what we see, what we say, and what we believe.

Where’s the Money? It’s a Dual Engine: Revenue + Influence

1⃣ Commercial Value:

Hyper-targeted advertising based on AI-enhanced behavioral profiling. In-platform monetization (e.g., AI-generated content, subscriptions, user engagement tools). Data cost savings by using proprietary datasets for AI training.

Result: Potential 20–40% increase in ad conversion, longer engagement times, and reduced reliance on external datasets.

2⃣ Political Value:

Narrative control: Prioritizing certain voices and suppressing others. Lobbying power: Essential infrastructure players become indispensable to governments. Election influence: Platforms can subtly shape public opinion at scale.

Real value: Not just money—power to influence global narratives.

Final Take

Merging AI and social media is a profitable and potent strategy—but one with enormous ethical and societal consequences.

It builds better models but risks embedding bias and disinformation. It fuels innovation but consolidates control in the hands of a few. It boosts profit—but potentially at the cost of public trust.

As citizens, leaders, and technologists, we must ask: Are we building the future—or letting it be programmed by a handful of tech giants?