Co -founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg recently told Dwarkesh Pate podcaster that “the average American has less than three friends.” According to Quartz Zuckerberg, he probably referred to the Pew Research study from 2023, which showed that 40 percent Adult Americans have three or less friends.
In the Pew Research study, 8 percent people said they had no “” friend, while 38 percent She estimated that she has five or more.
And a panacea for an epidemic of loneliness
Sometimes it is difficult to make contact with real people in real life. Zuckerberg believes that the solution to this problem is Chatbots AI, which are always present.
The CEO of Meta also praised the potential of AI therapists. His enthusiasm is based on the scientific article of February 2025 in Plos, which states that “The answers written by chatgpt were evaluated higher than the (human) therapist’s answers“.
Two cases that destroy the image of AI therapist
In two cases, chatbot therapy that impersonated the therapist had fatal consequences. In both cases, processes against character.ai are taking place.
The first of them concerns A 14-year-old boy who committed suicide. However, in the second case A 17-year-old boy with autism became aggressive towards his parents.
Concerns related to data privacy
That Zuckerberg praises Chatbota meta as a psychological panaceais problematic for some researchers. The reason for their doubts are issues related to data privacy.
Users are already providing a meta wide range of personal data. However, those that may come From the inquisitive chatbot pretending to be a therapist, they arouse much greater suspicions.
In the column for The Conversation, which is quoted by Ouartz, Uri Gal, a professor from the University of Sydney said that recent studies show that we are eager to share intimate information with chatbot, as with other people. “The personal nature of these interactions means that they are a gold mine for a company whose income depends on knowledge about you” – he wrote Gal.
Dubious effectiveness of chatbot therapy
Quartz reminds that last week Chatgpt OpenAI apologized for the update, which made him Chatbot praised everything that the user said, which resulted Extremely bad advice.
Meanwhile, in 2023, Meta deliberately removed the protective barriers in its chatbot products, which The Wall Street Journal informed in April. The company’s employees were concerned about the new Chatbot ability, which had the opportunity to get involved in sexual fantasies, but also to encourage them. Even more doubts were raised by the fact that this could happen regardless of the age of the user. Of course, the finish rejected the journal reports, but introduced age restrictions and introduced other changes in its products.
Why the meta chatbots?
Quartz quotes the statement of Meghana Dhar, former director of Instagram, who said in social media that Chatbots Meta AI are a “data mine” and a reaction to the falling involvement of users on the website. Chatbots are an attempt to rebuild the “falling finish of the finish line on the economy of attention,” said Dhar.
Source: Quartz
