The meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg provides a future wherein AI will understand you so well that various personalities will grow to be your “friends”.
In latest interview From the podcaster Dwarkesh Patel Zuckerberg said that he thinks that “the average person wants more communication, more connections that they actually have” and believes that chatbots and trained in the sphere of assorted personalities can assist fill this void.
“I think that the average American has fewer than three friends, three people who consider friends, and the average person is aimed at significantly more, I think it’s like 15 friends,” said Zuckerberg Patel. (He probably meant 2023 Pew Research Center studywho stated that 40% of Americans claim that they’ve three or less friends and 38% have five or more).
Zuckerberg says that AI has the chance to fill this gap.
Related: According to Marek Zuckerberg, Meta builds artificial intelligence that may write a code like a average engineer
Although he said that artificial intelligence “probably” is not going to replace personal or real contacts, he can assist people feel less alone. He added that users already use artificial intelligence to prepare for difficult conversations with people of their lives, and other corporations already offer AI personality as virtual therapists And romantic partners.
“For people who do not have a therapist, I think everyone will have artificial intelligence,” said Zuckerberg in a separate Podcast with analytical Ben Thompson last week.
Related: The meta tests artificial intelligence that may catch teenagers trying to get the foundations of age on Instagram
However, not everyone seems to be on board the possession of AI’s “friends”, and social media users criticized Zuckerberg for his comments.
Writer Neil Turkewitz wrote on x This perspective of Zuckerberg “happens when you think that humanity is reduced to binary data – you think about friendship through the lens of supply and demand.”
Other users asked If AI’s friends would tell people how to vote and to consider while different He followed the evolution of the finish From the place where you can connect to friends in 2006, to a spot to be combined with “imagined friends” in 2026.
Some were more optimistic, writing That they “wanted a friend AI.”
Carolyn Rogers, head of selling on the Blokhaus agency, wrote on x The next step could be for friends from AI to start recommending products, allowing you to earn money on this friendship.
2006 – Join Facebook to connect with friends
2026 – Join Facebook to connect with imaginary friends– WRLB? (@WRLB2) May 1, 2025
Zuckerberg’s comments arrive when the meta issued an independent Meta AI application last week to compete with Chatgpt Openai, Google’s Gemini and Xai’s Grok.
Zuckerberg revealed Film on Instagram About the appliance that nearly a billion people use Meta AI world wide in company applications reminiscent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Related: The finish line goes to chatgpt, releasing the independent application AI: “Long journey”