Mark Zuckerberg thinks maybe it’s time you send an AI bot a friend request. Last week, the Meta CEO sat down for an hour-long conversation with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel and argued that it’s only a matter of time before society sees the “value” in AI friendships.

In Mark Zuckerberg's latest vision for the future, we'll be filling our empty hours chatting away with our generative AI buddies. In an era when people spend more time alone than ever before, Meta's CEO is preaching not just about the power of his company to connect us to one another — but also about luring our attention to new,