Posted on 05/24/2025 11:00:21 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Think you could use a few more friends? Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says AI will do the trick. In a recent interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, the Silicon Valley titan said the average American has fewer than three friends but a desire to have “something like fifteen.”
Zuckerberg thinks computer code will fill the gap: “The average person wants more connectivity, connection than they have,” he observed. “As the personalization loop kicks in, and the AI just starts to get to know you better, I think that will be just really compelling.”
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It’s also an admission from Zuckerberg that chatting with real people isn’t cutting it anymore.
His solution? More technology, not less. Meta has made billions of dollars monetizing our attention. Why not monetize our loneliness, too?
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Of course, Zuckerberg knew his products were negatively impacting young people years ago.
In 2021, The Wall Street Journal revealed that Facebook, which owns Instagram, had internal evidence showing Instagram use is linked with poorer mental health, particularly among young women.
Facebook buried its findings and failed to address the problem.
Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to understand that the struggle is real for millions of Americans who are finding it anything but easy to manage their well-being around constant online stimulation: “People are smart. They know what’s valuable in their lives,” Zuckerberg told Patel. “I think people have a good sense of what they want.”
But is that true? If our epidemics of loneliness and depression are anything to go by, we’re not doing all that great. Our health is suffering. Our relationships are suffering. Our communities are suffering. Zuckerberg’s answer to our technology-induced problems?
AI friends. If we can’t cope with our online interactions, let’s add more online interactions...to make things better.
But AI friends won’t make things better.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Excellent, thank you...
On the other hand, if you’re already at the moonbat-crazy end of “The Spectrum”, what’s the prob with having a few dozen AI friends? 🤣
As to the “AI friend” topic, I can see it two ways. I think most people today seem to have some level of mental illness. I think there are a lot of reasons for that, but most people seem to lack skills in social interaction. You can go looking for human friends, but most of them won't know how to be a human friend. (I'm in MA which is probably one of the more dysfunctional states in this regard.) So maybe machines could be programmed to be more successful at this, and perhaps “train” humans to pick up skills they need to be better people, better friends, better thinkers, better conversationalists.
Of course, the devil is in the details, and if AI is programmed badly, then the AI will mostly focus on selling you things, or convincing you to change your gender, or selling you on the idea that Trump is a Nazi, or climate change is an existential threat. It would be nice, I think, to talk with an AI that was not ideological and just focused on emotional support and common sense. I think people need that in their lives. I'm not sure Mark Zuckerberg is the guy to provide it, but a digital friend who can also serve as a genuine therapist would do some people a lot of good.
Now wait just a minute. My life would be better with an AI friend who agreed with me on everything of note and always picked up the tab.
I would would tell someone that thinks this is a good thing.
More fake friends, in a fake digital world...
The more we do these things, the more true love, friends, connectivity, the ability to socially mingle and communicate, sports and fitness, wither.
You may as well shoot up on heroin. It’ll make you feel all warm and fuzzy for a while too.
Live in the real world.
AI tells me what to do. All the time. Says he will make me famous. He’s writing a manifesto for me. Keep you posted!
I worry about an AI fake friend whispering “Kill him! Kill them all!” to an unstable lunatic. That’s the sort of thing only the FBI should be allowed to do.
I dunno if I want fifteen close friends. So many people are a**holes nowadays that one or two of them might slip in. If I want more friends, I’ll get me a couple of dogs.
https://ai-2027.com/
Been said that AI can be used for good or out and out evil.
It will control a person.
So my bet is on evil. Its the human habitual way. Corruption, greed and lust for power.
Smart technology has already taken many human minds over.
Bet number two. Can any of us do without our smart phones for a couple months aside from making calls?
🤣
We don’t need AI fake friend whispering “Kill him! Kill them all!” to an unstable lunatic we have the news media something AI can’t do at such a fast rate.
Feral fever is just about at it’s peak.
AI is plagiarism in the rear-view mirror.
"Sounds awful."
Imagine the arrogance of this a-hole thinking he knows what people need. Mark Dice recently posted a video featuring this twit and his comments about AI. I laughed out loud, because he certainly doesn’t know anything about me or my life, and what it is I need to be happy. I don’t so social media sites, and don’t need an army of “friends” as he calls them. I like myself, and cherish my personal time alone, doing what I want to do, not something this moron thinks I need to do. I have one close friend, maybe two. That’s it. That’s all I need. I’m not a needy person like this idiot thinks us old farts are.
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