In its 2023 thematic intelligence report on social media, research company GlobalData stated that the number of patents recorded in the social media industry has been steadily declining since January 2021.
Despite a peak, in March 2022, of over 1,200 total patent publications, the number of social media patents dropped by around 30% from 2021 to September 2023.
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Explaining this steady drop, GlobalData’s report said that the technology needed to run social media platforms is generally not complex and has already been developed. Social media companies are now placing their attention on harnessing AI.
According to GlobalData, AI is already deeply affecting the social media platforms we use.
AI can be harnessed to enhance social media platform algorithms and recommendations, making users pages more personalised and engaging, but generative AI can also be used to create content for social media at a faster rate than ever before.
Furthermore, GlobalData states that many social media companies such as Meta or Snap are now integrating AI into the content moderation process. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has also touted its GPT-4’s potential in content moderation.
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By GlobalDataMeta’s Facebook platform alone now has around three billion monthly active users, accounting for around 61% of the global online population.
With more and more users generating potentially harmful or untrue content, AI could help ease the stress for content moderators both in terms of workload and mental health.
The data-collection business model of social media may also prove incredibly valuable to social media companies wishing to harness AI. AI models such as large language models (LLMs) require vast amounts of training data to be able to replicate human-like responses to prompts.
GlobalData principal analyst, Natasha Rybak, has previously likened the role of data to currency in the age of AI, stating that businesses will need “substantial investment” into the refinement and display of their data if they wish to use it to develop AI tools.
This will not be without legal implications.
“This ad-driven business model is facing pressures due to increased data privacy regulations and concerns over the use of personal data,” according to the report, referring to Meta’s legal troubles in the European Court of Justice ruled its collection of user data for personalised ads as non-consensual.
Despite tighter legal scrutiny over the collection and use of user data by social media companies, GlobalData remains positive that AI will continue to have a transformative affect upon platforms.
“While potential risks need to be mitigated, social media companies embracing AI will likely succeed,” according to the report.
Our signals coverage is powered by GlobalData’s Thematic Engine, which tags millions of data items across six alternative datasets — patents, jobs, deals, company filings, social media mentions and news — to themes, sectors and companies. These signals enhance our predictive capabilities, helping us to identify the most disruptive threats across each of the sectors we cover and the companies best placed to succeed.
