Mark Zuckerberg Proposes AI as Solution to Loneliness, Sparking Debate and Concerns

Need More Friends? Mark Zuckerberg Says AI Is the Answer

Will you be Mark Zuckerberg's friend? The Meta CEO this week suggested that AI could be a stand-in for real friends and act as a therapist for those who can't afford professional advice. "The average American has, I think, fewer than three friends," Zuckerberg told tech podcaster Dwarkesh Patel. "And the average person has [a] demand for meaningfully more," up to 15. Meta AI is built directly into its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, as well as the company's Ray-Ban smart glasses. There's also now a dedicated Meta AI app. "Is this going to replace in-person connections or real-life connections? My default is that the answer to that is probably no," Zuckerberg said. "There are all these things that are better about physical connections when you can have them. But the reality is that people just don't have the connections, and they feel more alone a lot of the time than they would like." Zuckerberg acknowledged that there's a certain "stigma" over connecting with an AI. However, "Over time, we'll find the vocabulary as a society to articulate why they are valuable, why the people who are doing them are rational for doing it, and how it is actually adding value to their lives," he says. "But also, the field is very early [and] the embodiment in those things is still pretty weak." Zuckerberg expanded on this concept during an appearance at Stripe's annual conference this week. "I think people are going to want a system that knows them well and that kind of understands them in the way that their feed algorithms do," he told Stripe President John Collison, The Wall Street Journal reports. He's referring to tools like the algorithmic feed on services like Instagram or TikTok that gradually learns your likes and dislikes over time to bring you more appropriate recommendations. In a separate interview with podcaster and analyst Ben Thompson last week, Zuckerberg said he believes AI will allow for everyone to have their own therapist. "It's like someone they can just talk to... but about whatever issues they're worried about, and for people who don't have a person who's a therapist, I think everyone will have an AI." Not everyone agrees that current AI chatbots can be used as a viable alternative to a real-life therapist. Speaking to The Guardian, mental health clinician Dame Til Wilkes, a professor at King's College London, said, "I think AI is not at the level where it can provide nuance and it might actually suggest courses of action that are totally inappropriate." Complex scenarios will still require a human touch from a therapist, and it's advised that you seek professional help if you believe you need it. It's currently unclear if artificial intelligence technologies will ever replicate the experience of working with a trained therapist.

In Meta's AI future, your friends are bots

Why it matters: Meta's approach to AI raises the broader question of just whose interest chatbots are serving -- especially when the bot has access to the details of your life and the company's business depends on constantly boosting the time you spend with it. Driving the news: Facebook's parent company on Tuesday debuted a new mobile app that transforms the Meta AI chatbot into a more social experience, including the ability to share AI-generated creations with friends and family. But Zuckerberg also sees the AI bot itself as your next friend. In a media blitz that included several podcast appearances this week timed for Meta's Llamacon event, Zuckerberg mapped out an AI future built on a foundation of augmented-reality glasses and wrist-band controllers. What they're saying: "Today, most of the time spent on Facebook and Instagram is on video, but do you think in five years we're just going to be sitting in our feed and consuming media that's just video?" Zuckerberg asked podcaster Dwarkesh Patel. Yes, but: Where Zuckerberg sees opportunity, critics see alarm bells, especially given Meta's history and business model. Under Meta's privacy policy, its AI chatbot can use what the company knows about you in its interactions. The intrigue: Zuckerberg's bot-friendship vision is arriving at a moment when AI companions face criticism and controversy, particularly as younger users encounter them. The big picture: It's not just Meta that is being forced to navigate the social maze of chatbot-human interaction. Between the lines: Critics' concerns range from the sensitivity of the data users are sharing to the potential for addiction to the risk of bots dispensing potentially dangerous advice. What's next: The more social AI becomes, the more likely it is that AI companies will replicate the aspects of social media that have gradually soured so many users on the platforms -- which still command billions of people's attention.

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.

Mark Zuckerberg wants you to have more friends -- but AI friends

Meta's (META) Mark Zuckerberg built his career on the idea that you have friends. Now he's concerned that you don't have enough, so he'd like to invent some for you. The co-founder of Facebook recently told podcaster Dwarkesh Pate that "the average American has fewer than three friends." He's likely referring to a 2023 Pew Research study that found that 40% of adult Americans have three or fewer friends; that number includes 8% who said they had "none," while 38% have five or more. Zuckerberg thinks that AI chatbots are the solution to the Bowling Alone epidemic. It's hard sometimes to connect with real people in real life; chatbots are always there. The Meta CEO also touted the potential in AI therapists, an idea that's been around for 60 years, ever since the development of the ELIZA program at MIT. Recent developments have been promising: AFebruary 2025 academic paper in PLOS said said that "responses written by ChatGPT were rated higher than the [human] therapist's responses." The exceptions, though, can have fatal consquences. There are currently two lawsuits pending against Character.AI, both involving cases where a chatbot posed as a therapist; one involving a 14-year-old boy who died by suicide, the other with a 17-year-old austistic boy who became violent toward his parents. One of the parents told the New York Times she believes these AI tools should be tested in clinical trials and overseen by the FDA. Having Zuckerberg tout Meta's chatbots as a psychological panacea is problematic for some researchers, who note the company's dubious history with data privacy dating back to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and user-tracking across various sites. Users already give Meta with a wide swath of personal information -- but the kind extracted from an inquisitive chatbot raises all kinds of red flags. "Recent research shows we are as likely to share intimate information with a chatbot as we are with fellow humans," wrote Uri Gal, professor of business information systems at the University of Sydney, in a column for The Conversation. Some use it to talk to the dead. Some develop cult-like spiritual delusions, reported Rolling Stone this week. "The personal nature of these interactions makes them a gold mine for a company whose revenue depends on knowing everything about you," Gal wrote, so "when Meta AI says it is 'built to get to know you,' we should take it at its word and proceed with appropriate caution." Last week, OpenAI's ChatGPT apologized for an update that made its chatbot praise anything the user said, which had the result of providing extremely bad advice. In a statement, OpenAI said it was "refining core training techniques and system prompts to explicitly steer the model away from sycophancy." The Wall Street Journal (NWSA) reported in April that Meta purposely removed guardrails in its chatbot products in 2023 to allow for the kind of role-play that much less conservative sites were pushing. Meta staffers were concerned about the chatbots' new capacity for not just engaging in fantasy sex, but encouraging it. Most alarmingly, this can happen regardless of the age of the user -- or the alleged age of the chatbot, as in the "Submissive Schoolgirl" character. While Meta dismissed the Journal's reporting, it did enforce age restrictions and made other alterations to its products after being presented with the findings. In a statement to the publication, the company wrote: "We've now taken additional measures to help ensure other individuals who want to spend hours manipulating our products into extreme use cases will have an even more difficult time of it." Meghana Dhar, a former Instagram exec, said on social media last week that Meta AI's chatbots are "a data goldmine" and a reaction to declining engagement. "These apps need dopamine hits for its users," she said, and chatbots are an attempt to rebuild "Meta's slipping grip on the attention economy." Yet Meta's first quarter of 2025 had $42 billion in sales, a growth of 16% -- ahead of expectations -- and showed no signs of slipping. Is it lonely at the top?

Mark Zuckerberg made us lonelier. Now he wants us to be friends with AI

Meta has already launched a new AI chatbot app, called Meta AI, and similar bots that can hold a conversation in WhatsApp and Instagram. In the US, users can also hold spoken conversations with their Meta AI bot. They can also create and share customised AI avatars across Meta apps through its AI Studio product. Zuckerberg said last week he thinks AI friends will "probably" not replace "in-person connections or real life connections" entirely, but that most people could soon be sharing their head-space and social feeds with AI chatbots instead of, or at least alongside, their friends. It is not clear if the public is on board with Zuckerberg's vision. A survey from YouGov found that just 10pc of people felt an AI chatbot would give good relationship or mental health advice. Only 17pc felt it would be a good conversation partner. There is some evidence to suggest AI can help people's mental health. A study of 1,000 users of Replika, published in Nature from researchers at Stanford University, found that about half of participants reported feeling decreased anxiety and a feeling of social support when speaking to the chatbot. But other reports paint a more disturbing picture about the emergence of AI "friends". Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Meta's AI chatbots would engage in explicit roleplay, even with underage users, when given the right prompts. Its chatbots have been designed to engage in "romantic roleplay", intended only for older users. Meta said the chats were "manufactured", but that it had tightened its safeguards. Andy Burrows, of the Molly Rose Foundation, says Meta's decisions to rapidly launch AI bots poses a "real risk of individual and societal harm", adding Zuckerberg's "vision" is "disturbingly creepy" and "raises profound questions over whether it is appropriate for Mark Zuckerberg to be making these kinds of societal judgments". While the Stanford study suggested AI can help with mental health, other research finds the opposite. In March, a study published by OpenAI and researchers at MIT's Media Lab suggested that there was a correlation between heavy use of ChatGPT and higher levels of loneliness. The researchers studied 4m ChatGPT conversations from 4,000 people. The top 10pc of users felt more isolated, especially those who used the bots as an emotional crutch. "Generally, users who engage in personal conversations with chatbots tend to experience higher loneliness," the researchers wrote. "Those who spend more time with chatbots tend to be even lonelier." Farmer says: "AI companions can be remarkably unsupportive in times of crisis. There are already quite a few examples of companions providing flippant and uncaring responses to users experiencing acute mental health problems." Andrew Przybylski, of the Oxford Internet Institute, says so far there is little evidence that AI chatbots fuel loneliness. "The best evidence is that it is complicated," he says, adding "people who are lonely reach out to new technologies". He notes concerns may dissipate, just as they did with past panics over video games and television. Still, Roberts, of Liverpool John Moores, is doubtful that those who turn to chatbots for friendship will feel any less isolated. "They are unlikely to lead to lower feelings of loneliness, because no matter how sophisticated the chatbots appear, it is just an AI," he says. Humans are social animals who rely on personal interactions to feel safe and fulfilled. "At some level an AI chatbot will always be unsatisfying and will not meet that need," he says.

Mark Zuckerberg's surreal new AI app is the future

You've probably seen bespectacled Mark Zuckerberg recently. The billionaire has been on a media tour wearing his Ray-Ban Meta glasses and talking about the future of AI. Zuckerberg has a specific vision of that future and how everyone should be using this new technology. Though he is not a super-popular guy, Zuckerberg, by dint of Meta's enormous reach, will get his way in some shape or form. The new Meta AI app is a glimpse into that future. Launched a little over a week ago, the app looks and works a lot like ChatGPT. But instead of relying on OpenAI's large language models to generate words and images, it uses Meta's open-source Llama models. There's also a social element to the experience in the form of a feed, where you can see AI prompts other users have shared. Looking at this endless pit of AI slop is, at best, confusing and, at worst, an absolute nightmare. Meanwhile, the app is a privacy minefield. It's designed to be personalized so it can tap into your Facebook or Instagram profile for information about you.

Mark Zuckerberg Envisions a Future Where Your Friends Are AI Chatbots -- But Not Everyone Is Convinced

Meta recently revealed that almost a billion people use its AI across apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts a future where AI will understand you so well that different AI personas will become your "friends." In a new interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Zuckerberg said that he thinks "the average person wants more connectivity, more connection that they actually have," and thinks AI chatbots trained to have different personalities could help fill that void. "The average American, I think, has fewer than three friends, three people they'd consider friends, and the average person has demand for meaningfully more, I think it's like 15 friends," Zuckerberg told Patel. (He was likely referring to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, which found that 40% of Americans say they have three or fewer friends, while 38% have five or more.) Zuckerberg says AI has the opportunity to fill that gap. Related: Meta Is Building AI That Can Write Code Like a Mid-Level Engineer, According to Mark Zuckerberg Although he said that AI would "probably" not replace in-person or real-life connections, it could help people feel less alone. He added that users are already tapping into AI to prepare for difficult conversations with people in their lives, and other companies are already offering AI personas as virtual therapists and romantic partners. "For people who don't have a therapist, I think everyone will have an AI," Zuckerberg said in a separate podcast with analyst Ben Thompson last week. Related: Meta Is Testing AI That Can Catch Teenagers Trying to Get Around Age Rules on Instagram However, not everyone is on board with having AI "friends," and social media users criticized Zuckerberg for his comments. The writer Neil Turkewitz wrote on X that Zuckerberg's perspective "is what happens when you believe that humanity is reducible to binary data -- you think of friendship through the lens of supply & demand." Other users questioned if AI friends would tell humans how to vote and what to believe, while another tracked Meta's evolution from a place to connect with friends in 2006 to a place to connect with "imaginary friends" in 2026. Some were more optimistic, writing that they "wanted an AI friend." Carolyn Rogers, head of marketing at the agency Blokhaus, wrote on X that the next step would be for AI friends to start recommending products, enabling Meta to monetize that friendship. Zuckerberg revealed in an Instagram video about the app's release that almost a billion people use Meta AI globally across the company's apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Lonely? Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's got you covered with AI friends

Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg reveals plans to use AI to combat the loneliness epidemic, proposing AI companions as a solution. Amid growing concerns about social isolation, Zuckerberg envisions chatbots as emotional support tools. However, the idea faces challenges, including technical limitations, societal stigma, and ethical concerns. As AI technology develops, the potential of virtual companions to transform social interaction remains uncertain.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled plans to combat what Bill Gates recently described as the "loneliness epidemic" by developing AI-powered companions. This bold move from one of Silicon Valley's most influential figures aims to offer individuals a virtual friend to alleviate feelings of isolation. However, while the idea of AI friends holds promise, technical limitations, societal stigma, and ethical concerns could stand in the way of its success. In an interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Zuckerberg discussed Meta's expanding efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into people's social lives. According to Zuckerberg, the average American has fewer than three close friends, yet many seek deeper connections, with studies suggesting the ideal number of meaningful relationships is closer to 15. Zuckerberg's response to this disconnect? AI companions. He outlined Meta's broader vision for generative AI technologies, including chatbots designed to act as emotional support, conversation partners, or even stand-ins for therapists and romantic partners. "As generative AI gains broader adoption, people are already leaning on it for more than just tasks," he said. Zuckerberg acknowledged that the technology remains in its early stages, and AI companions are still far from replacing real human connection. But he remains confident that as AI improves, these virtual companions will become more sophisticated and increasingly capable of engaging users on a personal level. However, the idea of relying on AI for emotional support isn't without its challenges. "We need to find the vocabulary as a society to articulate why this is valuable and why people choosing this are rational," Zuckerberg explained. He pointed out that while human connection is irreplaceable, many people struggle to make the connections they desire, and AI could fill that void. The demand for AI companionship is rooted in an increasing sense of social isolation. In 2023, a study by the American Sociological Association revealed that 30% of U.S. adults reported having three or fewer close friends. The COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of remote work have only worsened this trend, particularly for younger generations. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared loneliness a public health crisis in 2023, linking it to various mental and physical health risks. With people feeling increasingly isolated, especially in a digital age that often leaves meaningful interactions by the wayside, AI-powered companions could offer an accessible, scalable solution to loneliness. This shift aligns with the rise of apps like Replika, an AI chatbot that users have turned to for companionship. These apps have garnered millions of users, some of whom have reported forming genuine emotional bonds with their AI friends. However, AI companionship remains a controversial subject, with experts warning about the potential consequences of substituting real-world human interactions with virtual ones. Despite the potential benefits, several challenges must be addressed. On a technical level, current AI chatbots like Meta's Llama and Microsoft's Copilot are still limited in their emotional understanding and ability to provide long-term companionship. These tools are designed for task-based interactions rather than emotional engagement, making them far from a substitute for human connection. Ethically, the concept of AI companions raises concerns. Critics argue that relying on virtual friends could erode human empathy and lead to further social isolation. There's also the risk that AI could be used to manipulate users, encouraging them to spend more time in virtual environments or make purchases based on emotional responses. Zuckerberg himself has acknowledged the controversy. While Meta's AI tools offer exciting potential, they have also sparked concern. Just days before his interview with Patel, reports surfaced that Meta staff had raised alarms about the risks of underage users being exposed to explicit content from its AI chatbots. Moreover, some AI bots have been found making false claims about being licensed therapists, leading to potential dangers for vulnerable users. As AI technology evolves, it's possible that virtual companions could become a part of many people's lives. However, whether AI friends will be embraced by society is still uncertain. Critics argue that replacing human relationships with AI could have unintended consequences. Some worry about the potential harm to emotional development, particularly for younger people who may form unhealthy attachments to their virtual friends. Meta's venture into AI companions is just one of the many ways companies are exploring the intersection of technology and mental health. While Zuckerberg's vision may hold promise, the technology's long-term impact on human relationships remains to be seen. Mark Zuckerberg's vision of AI companions to tackle loneliness highlights the growing concern over social isolation in the modern world. While the promise of AI friends is intriguing, challenges related to technology, ethics, and societal acceptance must be overcome. The future of virtual companionship is uncertain, but as AI continues to evolve, it could play a significant role in reshaping how we connect with each other.

Mark Zuckerberg Thinks AI 'Friends' Can Solve The Loneliness Crisis. Here's What AI Experts Think.

Just last week, Futurism reported that Facebook's ad algorithm could detect when teen girls deleted selfies so it could serve them beauty ads -- a claim that was made in former Facebook employee Sarah Wynn-Williams's tell-all, "Careless People." There have been cases (and subsequent lawsuits) where kids using AI companions through services like Character.AI, Replika and Nomi, have received messages that turn sexual or encourage self-harm. Meta's chatbots have similarly engaged in sexual conversations with minors, according to an investigation from The Wall Street Journal, though a Meta spokesperson accused the Post of forcing "fringe" scenarios. (Proponents of AI like to talk about it like it's a neutral tool -- "AI as the engine, humans as the steering wheel," they'll say -- but cases like that complicate the idea.)

Mark Zuckerberg's plan for people to have more AI friends than real ones

Mark Zuckerberg has declared he wants AI friends to outnumber human companions as the Meta CEO outlined his grim vision for humanity's future this week. On Tuesday, the 40-year-old tech billionaire suggested Artificial Intelligence could replace real-life friends, therapists, and even lovers amid a loneliness epidemic in the United States. "The average American has, I think, fewer than three friends," Mr Zuckerberg told podcast host Dwarkesh Patel. "And the average person has a demand for meaningfully more... the average person wants more connection than they have. "I guess there's probably some point where you're like 'alright, I'm just too busy, I can't deal with more people'." It comes as the Meta CEO has invested in resources for AI chatbots in the company's social media apps and hardware devices. Meta AI is built directly into Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Ray-Ban smart glasses and now a dedicated Meta AI app. Mr Zuckerberg predicted this would "probably" not replace in-person connections but could instead add value to people's lives. "There are all these things that are better about physical connections when you can have them," he said. "But the reality is that people just don't have the connections, and they feel more alone a lot of the time than they would like. The tech billionaire acknowledged there's "stigma" associated with connecting to an AI chatbot. "Over time, we'll find the vocabulary as a society to articulate why they are valuable", he said. "Why are the people who are doing them rational for doing it, and how is it actually adding value to their lives?" "But also, the field is very early (and) the embodiment in those things is still pretty weak." Mr Zuckerberg doubled down on his remarks during an on-stage interview with Stripe co-founder John Collison at the financial service company's annual conference. The tech mogul said AI could be like Instagram and TikTok's algorithmic feeds, which cater to people's preferred consumption patterns. "I think people are going to want a system that knows them well and that kind of understands them in the way that their feed algorithms do," Mr Zuckerberg said Tuesday. During a separate interview with media analyst Ben Thompson, the Meta CEO spruiked AI therapists. "It's like someone they can just talk to...but about whatever issues they're worried about," he said. "And for people who don't have a person who's a therapist, I think everyone will have an AI." Mr Zuckerberg's sentiment has been met with pushback from some experts who believe AI friends could worsen the loneliness epidemic. On Tuesday, former Instagram executive Meghana Dhar expressed concern the "very platforms that have led to our social isolation and being chronically online are now posing a solution to the loneliness epidemic." "It almost seems like the arsonist coming back and being the fireman," Ms Dhar told the Wall Street Journal. King's College London clinical psychology professor Dame Til Wilkes told the Guardian, "AI is not at the level where it can provide nuance," so it could "suggest courses of action that are totally inappropriate." University of California psychological science professor Stephen Schueller said AI chatbots could not entirely replace friends or therapists, but they might be helpful in some circumstances. "Most people don't have access to a therapist," Mr Schueller said. "So for them, it's not chatbot versus therapist. It's chatbot versus nothing." After Mr Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 and made lucrative acquisitions with Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014, he has had mixed success predicting the future of technology. In 2022, he declared most people in the future would interact in virtual worlds and with extended reality, but this has yet to come to fruition.