Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts a future the place AI will perceive you so properly that completely different AI personas will grow to be your “associates.”
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 skilled to have completely different personalities may assist fill that void.
“The typical American, I feel, has fewer than three associates, three individuals they’d contemplate associates, and the typical individual has demand for meaningfully extra, I feel it is like 15 associates,” Zuckerberg informed Patel. (He was doubtless referring to a 2023 Pew Analysis Heart survey, which discovered that 40% of People say they’ve three or fewer associates, 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 substitute in-person or real-life connections, it may assist individuals really feel much less alone. He added that customers are already tapping into AI to organize for tough conversations with individuals 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 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 “associates,” and social media customers criticized Zuckerberg for his feedback.
The author Neil Turkewitz wrote on X that Zuckerberg’s perspective “is what occurs whenever you consider that humanity is reducible to binary knowledge — you consider friendship by means of the lens of provide & demand.”
Different customers questioned if AI associates would inform people how one can vote and what to consider, whereas one other tracked Meta’s evolution from a spot to attach with associates in 2006 to a spot to attach with “imaginary associates” in 2026.
Some have been extra optimistic, writing that they “wished an AI buddy.”
Carolyn Rogers, head of promoting on the company Blokhaus, wrote on X that the following step can be for AI associates to begin 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 associates
— 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 in regards to the app’s launch that nearly a billion individuals use Meta AI globally throughout the corporate’s apps like Fb, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
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