How many friends do you have?

This is one of the topics that comes up often among Silicon Valley thinkers. And the loneliness epidemic is also a focus of the WHO.

Now: how many connections on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn do you have?

NYU professor Scott Galloway (the one who appears in the WeWork series!) is very vocal about what is happening in the United States, especially among men. Fewer friendships, less support, fewer conversations. 21% of American men have 1 close friend… or fewer [citation needed].

It’s hard to say that digital social networks have no effect here. It may not be the root, but it is closely connected to the first generation of robots that live alongside us: ranking and recommendation algorithms.

But the second generation of robots is at our door! Zuckerberg said, in his interview with Dwarkesh Patel, that he will help “supplant” [citation needed] the need for more friends through Artificial Intelligence.

That’s right: soon you won’t get a message from a friend recommending you read this post of mine. You’ll get a message from Otto, from Tatiana, on your Instagram, with a DM linking to a cat reel. Otto and Tatiana also have other friends. Not many. They have a history, posts, photos and messages. And they know you well… but sometimes they get it wrong. Otto and Tatiana are a mix of chatbots, LLMs, Heygens, Midjourneys… in just the right measure to please us (and sometimes even to displease us). Her, Klara and the Sun, Ex Machina… are things of the past.

Reid Hoffman, the creator of LinkedIn, said a few days ago: “an artificial intelligence girlfriend can help you get a real girlfriend” (translated back from my Portuguese; I could not find his original wording) [citation needed]. I don’t think he has watched the famous streaming series about teenagers on the computer. Well, maybe he has.

MIT professor Sherry Turkle wrote the book Alone Together. A title that says a lot. Coffee shops in big urban and tech centers are full of people… alone. Constantly connected and more and more loneliness. Is this the direction we want for the use of Artificial Intelligence?

“Paulo, do you really need this alarmist tone on this subject?”. Yes, I do.

disclaimer: no AI was used to write this post.

Originally published on LinkedIn (in Portuguese)

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