The Art of the Instagram Handle and Deciding What to Name Your AI

Will netizens of 2035 anthropomorphize their AIs?

This is a tough one.

People have tried all kinds of things: digital humans, aliens, gods. Sometimes, the AI has a name that sounds vaguely human-like. Sometimes it has a name that sounds really human-like. Sometimes it pretends that it is from another planet. Sometimes it acknowledges that it's an AI. Sometimes, it leans into being a robot.

The reality is that consumer preferences here are extremely heterogeneous. In this heterogeneity of identities, in-groups, and beliefs, why should we expect that all AIs have the same shapes, brands, and analogies?

One way to think about this is by looking at the state of Instagram profiles: profile pics and usernames. People have accounts. There are main accounts and finstas. Some profile pics are faces. Others are memes. Others are pictures of objects. Businesses, meme pages, communities, and anons also have accounts. Some profile pics are abstract symbols. Others are characters / mascots (looking at you Duolingo Owl!). A few more are lettermarks. Usernames are no different.

What we see in Instagram profile pics and usernames is (a) they are heterogeneous, and (b) there's an art to making them. Choices made here are signals of identity and group-affiliation.

We see the same thing with iOS app icons as well, by the way.

I think we will see something similar with personal AIs. Lots of different ways to brand them. Some will be super anthropomorphic. Others like robots. Others like gods. There's going to be a whole creative practice that emerges around this.