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VIDEO: Do we really only "have 3 friends, but want 15"?

Zuckerberg pulls a classic "they say" move to market AI friends on Meta.

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I decided to try something different today and use Substack’s video recording capabilities.

I saw a video of Mark Zuckerberg explaining the rationale for Meta offering “AI friends” on its platforms. Stated with his usual flat affect and making a declarative statement that felt truth-y, but not true. So I went down the rabbit hole to research where the stats he cited came from. It resulted in a classic case of taking a grain of truth, stripping its context and then piling on an unverified (and unverifiable) fact.

In the video I take you on my journey to fact check. Here’s the links I mention:

Original video of Zuckerberg that went viral with almost 17MM views. As I mention in the video, it’s possible this is a deep fake because I couldn’t find the original source, but reputable outlets have re-shared it. And it’s a good conversation-starter about media literacy.

Note: The above link is from Twitter, and if, like me, you don’t like to go to Twitter anymore, here is the video as I originally saw it from someone else on Threads and then shared:
https://www.threads.com/@elisacp/post/DJHN0PMpI__?xmt=AQF0XD3Qyr-jYGuWFW7Hrf9lEboRKLM1u7uMOsHoWu7GRQ

Link to my Perplexity search digging into this, which shows you how they provide a narrative flow, but footnote with sources (thus proving I am not wholly anti-AI!):
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/a09ee758-1c23-4a9b-80ef-755b15d66030

Let me know how you like the video format. Let me know how many friends you have. Let me know if you’ve been yearning to add new AI artificial friends to your circle!

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