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PredictionVideo · 41:19 — 42:49

The rise of AI-generated content will ultimately be a tailwind for Instagram because, amid an abundance of synthetic content, people will increasingly seek out creativity, authenticity, and real people — an area where Instagram's investment in individual creators positions it well.

Adam predicts AI content will be a net tailwind for Instagram despite ranking challenges, because abundant synthetic content will make people crave authentic, human creators more, not less — an audience Instagram has long invested in. ✦ AI generated

Adam Mosseri · Lenny's Podcast · 2026-07-09 · original ↗

starts at this moment · 41:19

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Is the rise of AI content a headwind or a tailwind for Instagram versus other platforms? Do you think this helps or hurts you guys?

I think it's going to be a tailwind, but I think it's going to be a challenge... In a world where there's an abundance of synthetic content, I actually think people are going to seek out creativity and authenticity and people more, not less. And I think that that will help us.

verbatim transcript · starts at 41:19

Transcript · around this moment

41:19I think it's going to be a challenge. It's And not just because it's more content. Obviously, we're an attention business driven business. We're an advertising business. More content means potentially more attention. It that's not for free, though. Like, I don't think we're very good at ranking AI content yet. There's great AI content. There's crap AI content. you should just see the stuff you're interested in and not any of the stuff you're not

41:38interested in. But I do think that in a world where or for years now and I've said this many times, power shifting from institutions to individuals across industries, the easiest example is sports where players are more relevant than teams now. And that was not the case when I was a kid. In that world, you're gonna I think it behooves us to invest in individuals and to invest in specifically for Instagram

42:04and creators. And I mean creators broadly. I don't just mean influencers who are promoting branded content and making, you know, native only videos. I mean anybody who's using platforms like Instagram to help do what they do, right? It could be you could be a journalist, you could be an artist, you could be selling scarves you sew, but like you're out there as yourself. for creating and sharing content that helps

42:28you achieve whatever it is you're trying to do. So, we've been leaning in that direction for many years now. That's been our, you know, one of our two or three most important audiences for as long as I've been on Instagram. In a world where there's an abundance of synthetic content, I actually think people are going to seek out creativity and authenticity and people [snorts] more, not less. And I think that that

42:52will help us. That doesn't mean that we won't have AI content on our platform. There's going to be bad and good AI content and we're going to try and handle that, you know, the way we normally handle content. So unsafe goes away. Interesting versus not interesting is based on ranking and personalization. Um, but I think people are going to really seek out other points of view because Instagram was never just about

43:12the content. It was always about to a certain degree the person behind the content, the point of view, the reason they're sharing it, their perspective. And I think that's going to become more important, not less. And I think given that we are not the best at a lot of things, but we are the largest uh creator platform, you know, you know, if you look at how we define creators and

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