Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts a future the place AI will perceive you so properly that completely different AI personas will change into your “mates.”
In a brand new interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Zuckerberg mentioned that he thinks “the common particular person desires extra connectivity, extra connection that they really have,” and thinks AI chatbots skilled to have completely different personalities may assist fill that void.
“The typical American, I feel, has fewer than three mates, three folks they’d contemplate mates, and the common particular person has demand for meaningfully extra, I feel it is like 15 mates,” Zuckerberg instructed Patel. (He was possible referring to a 2023 Pew Analysis Middle survey, which discovered that 40% of People say they’ve three or fewer mates, 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 “in all probability” not exchange in-person or real-life connections, it may assist folks really feel much less alone. He added that customers are already tapping into AI to organize for tough conversations with folks of their lives, and different firms are already providing AI personas as digital therapists and romantic companions.
“For individuals who do not have a therapist, I feel everybody can have an AI,” Zuckerberg mentioned in a separate podcast with analyst Ben Thompson final week.
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Nevertheless, not everyone seems to be on board with having AI “mates,” 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 the lens of provide & demand.”
Different customers questioned if AI mates would inform people the right way to vote and what to imagine, whereas one other tracked Meta’s evolution from a spot to attach with mates in 2006 to a spot to attach with “imaginary mates” in 2026.
Some had been extra optimistic, writing that they “needed an AI pal.”
Carolyn Rogers, head of promoting on the company Blokhaus, wrote on X that the following step could be for AI mates to start out recommending merchandise, enabling Meta to monetize that friendship.
2006 – Be part of Fb to attach with your mates
2026 – Be part of Fb to attach along with your imaginary mates— 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 nearly a billion folks use Meta AI globally throughout the corporate’s apps like Fb, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
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