Sometimes you have to use fire to fight fire; but when it comes to dealing with low-quality content and hate speech on social media, adding more "fire"—in this case, artificial intelligence—might worsen the situation. At its best, social media is a space for sharing authentic experiences and knowledge. Relying solely on AI tools to maintain this space overlooks the primary draw of these platforms: "human presence."
In April, the moderators of the r/AskHistorians community on Reddit faced a wave of unexpected warnings. Automated content moderation systems began deleting dozens of posts and comments, some dating back more than 10 years. This event showed the extent to which mistaken deletions by AI can harm the history and richness of virtual communities.