Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts a future the place AI will perceive you so nicely that completely different AI personas will turn into your “associates.”
In a brand new interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Zuckerberg mentioned that he thinks “the typical particular person needs extra connectivity, extra connection that they really have,” and thinks AI chatbots educated to have completely different personalities may assist fill that void.
“The common American, I feel, has fewer than three associates, three individuals they’d contemplate associates, and the typical particular person has demand for meaningfully extra, I feel it is like 15 associates,” Zuckerberg informed Patel. (He was possible referring to a 2023 Pew Research Center 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 exchange 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 arrange for troublesome conversations with individuals of their lives, and different firms are already providing AI personas as virtual therapists and romantic companions.
“For individuals who haven’t got a therapist, I feel everybody may 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 while you imagine that humanity is reducible to binary knowledge — you consider friendship by the lens of provide & demand.”
Different customers questioned if AI associates would inform people how one can vote and what to imagine, 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 good friend.”
Carolyn Rogers, head of selling on the company Blokhaus, wrote on X that the following step could be for AI associates to begin 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 together with your imaginary associates— WRLB? (@WRLB2) May 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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