Zuckerberg Says in Response to Loneliness Epidemic, He Will Create Most of Your Friends Using Artificial Intelligence

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is more concerned about his billions of customers making friends with AI chatbots than creating bonds with real human beings.

In an interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel this week, Zuckerberg asserted that more people should be connecting with chatbots on a social level — because, in a striking line of argumentation, they don't have enough real-life friends.

When asked if AI chatbots can help fight the loneliness epidemic, the billionaire painted a dystopian vision of a future in which we spend more time talking to AIs than flesh-and-blood humans.

"There's the stat that I always think is crazy, the average American, I think, has fewer than three friends," Zuckerberg told Patel. "And the average person has demand for meaningfully more, I think it's like 15 friends or something, right?"

"The average person wants more connectivity, connection, than they have," he concluded, hinting at the possibility that the discrepancy could be filled with virtual friends.

Zuckerberg argued that we simply don't have the "vocabulary" yet to ascribe meaning to a future in which we seek connection from an AI chatbot.

However, he also admitted there was a "stigma" surrounding the practice right now and that the tech was "still very early."

He has a point. The current state of AI chatbots leaves a lot to be desired. Zuckerberg's interview with Patel was published just days after the Wall Street Journal reported that Meta staffers had raised concerns over underage users being exposed to sexually explicit discussions by the company's AI chatbots.

Days later, 404 Media reported that Meta's AI Studio app was routinely allowing users to create bots that claimed they were licensed therapists, crossing a troubling ethical boundary that could result in users being given dangerous advice.

There are also immense shortcomings with the large language models powering these chatbots that may or may not be solved by future advancements. From rampant hallucinations to struggles with logic, critics have pointed out that the tech may turn out to be a dead end.

Despite these shortcomings, Zuckerberg has leaned heavily into the development of these chatbots, a Silicon Valley-style  "move fast and break things" approach that could have some serious societal implications.

Will AI chatbots really emerge as the solution to an increasingly lonely modern society? Experts have repeatedly warned that replacing therapists and even romantic partners with AI could have dangerous consequences, instead eroding a person's ability to empathize and interact with other people.

As the CEO of Meta, Zuckerberg is of course beholden to his shareholders to sell a vision filled with AI avatar friends. And whether that's a future people are actually willing to embrace — or whether Meta's AI has anything to offer that its competitors don't — is an entirely different question.

Considering Zuckerberg's dream of creating virtual worlds in the form of a "metaverse" to hang out with friends falling flat on its face and wasting billions of company dollars in the process, there are plenty of reasons to remain skeptical.

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