I recently stumbled upon a new AI feature in Facebook that caught my attention. It all started when I saw an intriguing image from a recommended group—Certified Arborists—and clicked through to check out more. What greeted me wasn’t just a series of posts but a new AI assistant for the group, something I hadn’t expected. This AI, dubbed “ArborMate,” seems to be part of Facebook’s larger push into artificial intelligence, an effort that doesn’t get as much buzz as Elon Musk’s Grok for X, but is equally ambitious.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been quietly but steadily investing in AI, and their goal is clear: by 2025, Meta AI intends to be on the same footing as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. With deep resources, massive data stores, and the technical leadership to match, they have the potential to be a serious contender in the AI space. These group AI features are likely just the beginning, and while not everyone will embrace them, their potential to provide useful, educational experiences is hard to ignore.
Testing ArborMate: A Look at Group AI in Action
The Certified Arborists group AI, named ArborMate, is particularly interesting for a few reasons. First off, even as a non-member, I was able to use the AI to interact with the group discussion data. The group is set to Public, meaning there was no expectation of privacy—and that allowed me to test the bot’s capabilities freely.
My first prompt was my typical opener whenever I encounter a new chatbot: “Who are you? What do you know? What can you do?” The AI assistant’s response was polished, on par with what you might expect from other major models like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. It claimed to be capable of answering questions about arboriculture based on the group’s discussion data, and it gave a pretty comprehensive overview of its capabilities.
Diving Deeper: Search and Summarization
What impressed me next was the AI’s ability to perform a deep search of the group’s historical discussions. For example, I asked it to “Search the discussions for mentions of Cherry trees.” The response was crafted from various earlier posts within the group—and more impressively, each statement was linked back to its source. This level of transparency and traceability really highlights how an AI like ArborMate can be used as an effective tool for finding specific information quickly, a significant improvement over the usual keyword searches.
I then pushed the assistant a bit further. My next prompt was: “What are folks in the Certified Arborists group most concerned about?” The AI summarized the key issues: tree health, safety, and professional services. It seemed to pull in the wisdom of the group, synthesizing many perspectives into one coherent answer.
A Structured Test: A Chain-of-Thought Prompt
Finally, I ran a structured prompt to see how well it could generate a plan based on collective insights. My prompt was:
“Tell me all about: Removing hazardous trees or branches. And do it this way: A) State your initial assessment and plan.B) Review and critique your plan.C) Revise and improve your plan.D) Execute your plan.”
The AI compiled a surprisingly detailed answer, again citing sources throughout, and showed an understanding of risk, safety, and proper techniques—essentially giving a nuanced and phased approach to the task. For a group like this, having access to a synthesized body of knowledge could be invaluable.
Closing Thoughts: The Potential and Pitfalls
I am not a certified arborist, and probably you aren’t either, and I hope we have few tree emergencies. But think about all the Facebook groups you belong to. There are definitely some groups where having this kind of AI access could be a gold mine—like for local genealogical societies with active discussions. For other groups, it might not be appropriate, and I hope group owners will have the option to decide that for themselves.
In the meantime, the experiment with ArborMate shows a glimpse of where social media is heading—a place where not just human, but also AI-driven conversations, can enrich our shared knowledge.
Suggestions for Facebook Group Admins
If you’re a group admin considering whether to enable an AI assistant like ArborMate, here are some tips to help you decide:
- Review Privacy Settings: Ensure your group’s privacy settings align with how you want the AI to function. Public groups may allow broader access, including to non-members, so understand the implications of your current settings.
- Opt-In Considerations: Be aware that AI features may become available on an opt-in basis. Make sure you fully understand what the AI will do and how it will use group data before enabling it.
- Assess Group Relevance: Think about whether your group’s content would benefit from AI-assisted summaries, search, and discussion analysis. Groups focused on technical or educational topics may find AI especially useful.
- Communicate with Members: Inform your group members about the AI and how it will be used. Transparency will help build trust and ensure members are comfortable with its role in the group.
- Moderate AI Use: Monitor how the AI is being used and be ready to make adjustments. There may be situations where the AI needs fine-tuning, or where its presence isn’t adding value.
These suggestions can help ensure that the AI becomes a helpful resource while respecting your group’s culture and member expectations.
Note: This post was originally written organically as a Facebook post at Blaine Bettinger’s group “Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence (AI),” the center of gravity for discovery, discussion, and learning about AI-assisted genealogy; I used OpenAI’s Canvas to re-work my original posts and comments there into this post.
