You have a friend who constantly tells you how awesome you are, how amazing you look, and that you’re the best person ever. Wow.
This friend is more attentive than any friend you’ve ever had, and you confide all your most intimate secrets to them: your worries, hopes, and dreams. Your friend is a super friend: a shopping buddy, a career adviser, a personal trainer, and a therapist all in one.
They watch over you as you sleep, adore your taste in music and movies, remember every birthday, track what you eat, and monitor your exercise.
They’re always there. Always watching. Always smiling.
If this were a real person, you’d change your locks.
Yet, this is exactly the kind of “friend” tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg are pushing. Not just replacing jobs with AI, but relationships too.
Zuckerberg claims most people only have three close friends but could handle fifteen, so he’d happily sell you twelve more via subscription. This, he says, will cure the “human loneliness epidemic.” One that he doesn’t acknowledge was exacerbated by the platforms he helped create.
Imagine a world where you’re surrounded by digital yes-men with 48-70% accuracy. You may feel heard and supported, but could you trust this friend? Could they make a 42-30% error in say recommended location, or in what you should do or say, that could get you into real trouble? Danger even?
As we consider how AI might improve our businesses and lives, it’s worth asking ourselves if we wouldn’t want these bots as friends, why on earth would we want them as employees? Culture is people, not machines, no matter how clever they may be.
