Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts a generation the place AI will perceive you so smartly that other AI personas will transform your “friends.”
In a brandnew interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Zuckerberg mentioned that he thinks “the average person wants more connectivity, more connection that they actually have,” and thinks AI chatbots educated to have other personalities may just backup fill that void.
“The average American, I think, has fewer than three friends, three people they’d consider friends, and the average person has demand for meaningfully more, I think it’s like 15 friends,” Zuckerberg informed Patel. (He used to be most probably regarding a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, which discovered that 40% of American citizens say they have got 3 or fewer pals, time 38% have 5 or extra.)
Zuckerberg says AI has the chance to fill that hole.
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Even though he mentioned that AI would “probably” no longer exchange in-person or real-life connections, it might backup crowd really feel much less lonely. He added that customers are already tapping into AI to arrange for tricky conversations with crowd of their lives, and alternative corporations are already providing AI personas as virtual therapists and romantic companions.
“For people who don’t have a therapist, I think everyone will have an AI,” Zuckerberg mentioned in a distant podcast with analyst Ben Thompson latter past.
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On the other hand, no longer everyone seems to be on board with having AI “friends,” and social media customers criticized Zuckerberg for his feedback.
The essayist Neil Turkewitz wrote on X
Alternative customers questioned if AI pals would inform people learn how to vote and what to consider, time any other tracked Meta’s evolution from a park to join with pals in 2006 to a park to join with “imaginary friends” in 2026.
Some have been extra positive, writing that they “wanted an AI friend.”
Carolyn Rogers, head of selling on the company Blokhaus, wrote on X that the after step can be for AI pals to begin recommending merchandise, enabling Meta to monetize that fellowship.
2006 – Fix Fb to join with your folks
2026 – Fix Fb to join together with your imaginary pals— WRLB? (@WRLB2) May 1, 2025
Zuckerberg’s feedback begin as Meta exempt a standalone Meta AI app latter past to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and xAI’s Grok.
Zuckerberg observable in an Instagram video in regards to the app’s reduce that just about one billion crowd usefulness Meta AI globally around the corporate’s apps like Fb, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
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Caleb