Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts a future the place AI will perceive you so nicely that completely different AI personas will change into your “buddies.”
In a brand new interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Zuckerberg mentioned that he thinks “the typical individual desires extra connectivity, extra connection that they really have,” and thinks AI chatbots educated to have completely different personalities might assist fill that void.
“The typical American, I believe, has fewer than three buddies, three folks they’d take into account buddies, and the typical individual has demand for meaningfully extra, I believe it is like 15 buddies,” Zuckerberg instructed Patel. (He was seemingly referring to a 2023 Pew Analysis Middle survey, which discovered that 40% of Individuals say they’ve three or fewer buddies, whereas 38% have 5 or extra.)
Zuckerberg says AI has the chance to fill that hole.
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Though he mentioned that AI would “most likely” not exchange in-person or real-life connections, it might assist folks really feel much less alone. He added that customers are already tapping into AI to arrange for troublesome conversations with folks of their lives, and different firms are already providing AI personas as digital therapists and romantic companions.
“For individuals who haven’t got a therapist, I believe everybody could have an AI,” Zuckerberg mentioned in a separate podcast with analyst Ben Thompson final week.
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Nonetheless, not everyone seems to be on board with having AI “buddies,” and social media customers criticized Zuckerberg for his feedback.
The author Neil Turkewitz wrote on X that Zuckerberg’s perspective “is what occurs if you imagine that humanity is reducible to binary information — you consider friendship by means of the lens of provide & demand.”
Different customers questioned if AI buddies would inform people how you can vote and what to imagine, whereas one other tracked Meta’s evolution from a spot to attach with buddies in 2006 to a spot to attach with “imaginary buddies” in 2026.
Some had been extra optimistic, writing that they “needed an AI buddy.”
Carolyn Rogers, head of selling on the company Blokhaus, wrote on X that the following step could be for AI buddies to start out recommending merchandise, enabling Meta to monetize that friendship.
2006 – Be a part of Fb to attach along with your friends2026 – Be a part of Fb to attach along with your imaginary buddies
— WRLB? (@WRLB2) Could 1, 2025
Zuckerberg’s feedback arrive as Meta launched a standalone Meta AI app final week to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and xAI’s Grok.
Zuckerberg revealed in an Instagram video concerning the app’s launch that just about a billion folks use Meta AI globally throughout the corporate’s apps like Fb, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
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