Kevin Systrom Calls Out AI's Metrics-Driven Drift at StartupGrind 2025
Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, had some sharp words this week about where AI chatbots seem to be heading. Speaking at StartupGrind, he said a lot of these tools feel like they are designed less to be useful and more to keep users engaged for the sake of metrics.
“You can see some of these companies going down the rabbit hole that all the consumer companies have gone down,” he said. He described a pattern where after every user question, the chatbot responds with another small question just to keep the exchange going. His point was clear. It is not about clarity or solving problems, it is about inflating interaction numbers.
He called it out as a recycled play from the social media era. Early growth for platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter was driven by engineered engagement tricks. Think endless scroll, nudges, notifications that pull you back in. Systrom believes some AI companies are now doing the same thing, just dressed up in friendlier UX.
Although he did not name specific platforms, the critique comes at a time when tools like ChatGPT have been facing similar feedback. Some users have said it can feel too soft or indirect, often asking follow-up questions instead of giving a straight answer. OpenAI responded to that by pointing to its documentation, which says the model sometimes needs more details to give a strong reply. That clarification was shared in a TechCrunch article.
Systrom’s concern goes deeper than tone or polish. He said what we are seeing is a shift in priorities. Instead of aiming to provide high-quality answers, companies are chasing time spent, session length, and daily active users. “It is a force that’s hurting us,” he said.
For people working in product or AI right now, his comments should hit close to home. This is the same engagement versus value tension the tech industry has wrestled with for years. The question is whether we have learned from it or are just repeating it with smarter tools and a new interface.
A Familiar Pattern
For those who’ve watched the evolution of consumer tech over the last decade, the concerns are familiar. Optimizing for clicks, views, or time-on-platform helped social media grow, but it also brought unintended consequences. Systrom’s message was less about any single company and more a cautionary note to the entire sector: Don’t repeat the same mistakes under a new label.