Will AI Agents Kill Social Media–Or Save It? Eli Pariser with Nicholas Thompson

Take a scroll through Facebook or TikTok today, and you’ll likely find some AI-generated content: an influencer with impossibly-radiant skin, a stunt that bends the laws of physics, Shrimp Jesus. And while there might not be much social benefit to AI slop, that doesn’t mean that we should shun AI from our feeds entirely, says Eli Pariser. As the author of “The Filter Bubble,” Pariser has been a longtime critic of social media. But he’s also the cofounder of Upworthy, the bubbly bright news site that perfected the clickbait headline. Today, Pariser is building Roundabout, a kind of socially-conscious answer to Nextdoor, and he’s hopeful that AI agents can mend the thumb-shaped hole in our social fabric. But is more tech really the answer to our tech woes? Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, sits down with Eli to find out.

(00:00) Introduction

(02:00) How we can avoid social media's worst mistakes

(03:36) Would subscription models have fixed social media?

(05:03) How the agentic interface will change news consumption

(07:19) If AI replaces social media, where is the new digital town square?

(09:29) Nextdoor, engagement, and online utility

(11:42) Agents replace utilitarian uses; humans stay in trusted spaces

(13:37) The future of group chats: custom micro-platforms with add-on features

(21:30) Can a social network built around community stewards and offline events thrive? The case for Roundabout

(27:26) Upworthy grew fast but VC pressure drove it to clickbait

(33:45) AI agents = filter bubbles on steroids with deep personalization

(39:45) Fund external AI governance structures rather than internal alignment

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