Zuckerberg's AI serfs will do nothing to cure our loneliness

Our billionaire tech overlords have not been showering themselves with glory for their decision-making of late.

- KAT BROWN

The financial losses that Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk et al have weathered, both individually and for their companies, as a result of Trump’s tariffs and their endorsement of the man, are enormous and singularly embarrassing.

So when Mark Zuckerberg – the owner of Meta, which runs Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – revealed his plans to solve America’s human loneliness by rolling out increasingly personalised AI assistants, there was a collective sigh heard around the world. Zuckerberg said the average American had only three friends, but had the capacity and desire for 15. By getting a chatbot to take on one of these roles, you are not getting a friend, but a programmable serf.

In a pithy post that went viral last year, the author Joanna Maciejewska said: “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.” That goes for friendship, too: human friendship – a point which Zuckerberg seemed to have missed when he said: “The world is going to get a lot funnier, weirder, and quirkier.”