Latest news with #LlamaCon2025
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What Mark Zuckerberg Is Missing on AI and Loneliness
Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks with Databricks Co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi at LlamaCon 2025, an AI developer conference, in Menlo Park, Calif. on April 29, 2025. Credit - Jeff Chiu—AP Photo In early May, Mark Zuckerberg made headlines for comments about how he sees the potential of AI to transform social isolation. In a conversation with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, he pointed out that the 'average American has fewer than three friends' and argued that the answer may not be in traditional policy solutions like reinvesting in community centers or expanding mental health support. 'I think people are going to want a system that knows them well and understands them in the way that their feed algorithms do,' he continued, envisioning AI friends, companions, and therapists as the remedy for modern disconnection. Zuckerberg's prescription might sound extreme. But it begs profound philosophical questions: What does it mean to have a friend? Can algorithms ever replicate the complex and messy process of forging meaningful bonds with another being? These are questions that we, as a society, need to answer. Quickly. Zuckerberg is correct that there's a real problem. The loneliness epidemic is increasingly serious. Surveys show that Americans' in-person interactions have dropped by as much as 45% in recent years across certain groups. Beyond simply loneliness, the challenge can be described in terms of falling trust and social cohesion—a deficit of belonging. There's growing evidence that social media and the decline of in-person social connection have coincided with major increases in anxiety and depression, as well as political polarization and pessimism about the future. Today, the U.S. ranks last among G7 countries in terms of trust in public institutions. The Meta founder is also right that AI can meet some of a person's immediate emotional needs. Since the 1960s, when MIT researchers developed ELIZA, a program designed to mimic a psychotherapist, we've known that even basic AI interactions can provide temporary comfort. Contemporary studies even show that ChatGPT responses are rated highly in therapeutic contexts, suggesting these AI systems may provide accessible support without the biases and limitations of human therapists. While they may have their own biases and hallucinations, AI companions offer consistency, immediate availability, and can tailor interactions precisely to an individual's preferences, something busy friends or family members can't always do. Read More: I'm a Therapist, and I'm Replaceable. But So Are You Still, the case for preserving real human bonds isn't just a romantic ideal or techno-skepticism. Connection is what makes us human, and despite Zuckerberg's enthusiasm, there's clear evidence that real human interaction can't be replaced by machines. Researchers like Julianne Holt-Lunstad of Brigham Young University have demonstrated how face-to-face interactions reduce not only psychological distress but physical health problems, including cardiovascular disease. Neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni of UCLA highlights the role of 'mirror neurons,' specialized brain cells activated only through direct human interactions, crucial for empathy and emotional understanding—capacities AI interactions cannot stimulate. Human relationships are intricate and inherently messy, providing intangible benefits like growth through discomfort and emotional depth through complexity. Psychology research stretching back over 50 years shows that even unpleasant social interactions—including misunderstandings and disagreements—can foster personal empathy, problem-solving skills, and resilience. Overcoming social friction is integral to community-building. There's danger in normalizing the idea that human connection can be replaced by AI. It leads people to deprioritize investments in human connection. Rather than navigating a difficult but necessary conversation or making an effort to win someone's trust, there's the temptation to turn instead to the chatbot for companionship. In doing so, we run the risk of viewing ourselves as little more than machines. This is corrosive to human character as well as community. There's a simple reason why we hear a lot about human-centered solutions to the social connection crisis—including investments in mental health, youth programs, community centers, volunteerism, libraries, parks, and quality public spaces. They work. Decades of research validate that well-funded, vibrant public spaces and service-oriented initiatives significantly reduce loneliness and increase trust and social cohesion. Yet, our investments in these strategies remain insufficient. The decline of religious institutions also plays a significant role in weakening social bonds. Religion has historically optimized rituals, intergenerational connections, community building, and opportunities to explore profound existential questions—all essential aspects of belonging. Though understandable reasons lead many people to distance themselves from organized religion, we can't discard the wisdom these structures have built over centuries. As religious participation declines, one important answer is to create secular frameworks that similarly build common meaning and shared purpose among people—qualities that machines, by definition, cannot provide. It's easy to laugh off Zuckerberg's comments as the musings of another out-of-touch tech mogul eager to automate humanity. But dismissing them isn't enough. This is a moment that demands clarity and resolve around the irreplaceable value of human presence. Zuckerberg accurately diagnoses our crisis of isolation. But the solution will not be automated. Contact us at letters@
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Yahoo
WhatsApp to be flooded with more AI features despite user backlash
WhatsApp is planning to add a new artificial intelligence (AI) features to its service despite a user backlash against the technology. The private messaging app said it would explore adding AI-powered writing suggestions and summaries to the service. The decision is likely to frustrate many of its users amid criticism of the app's decision to include parent company Meta's AI chatbot within its service. WhatsApp now features a button to pull up the Meta AI chatbot, which can answer questions in English in a similar manner to ChatGPT. It also offers AI-powered search suggestions. The Meta AI button, which takes the form of a glowing blue ring within the app, has left users annoyed and asking for ways to turn it off. Users on Reddit have said they 'hate' the tool and branded it 'bug-ridden rubbish'. A WhatsApp spokesman said last week that its AI features were 'entirely optional, and people can choose to use them or not'. The spokesman added: 'We think giving people these options is a good thing, and we're always listening to feedback from our users to make WhatsApp better.' Cyber security experts also questioned whether WhatsApp's decision to add more AI tools represented a 'compromise' on privacy. In order to handle AI requests, some data from a user's message would need to be processed on external servers, rather than the user's smartphone. Meta said its system would be built in such a way that no third party would be able to see the contents of a message from a user. Meta said: 'No one except you and the people you're talking to can access or share your personal messages, not even Meta or WhatsApp.' But Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cyber security adviser at NordVPN, said: 'It's still a compromise. Any time data leaves your device – no matter how securely – it introduces new risks. 'WhatsApp has clearly worked to reduce those risks, but it's a balancing act between user demand for smart features and the foundational promise of end-to-end encryption.' WhatsApp said it planned to build the tools in a manner that 'allows our users around the world to use AI in a privacy-preserving way'. WhatsApp's encryption technology, which means nobody but the sender and recipient of a message can read it, makes it technically challenging to add AI prompts. The company said it had developed a technology called Private Processing, which would soon allow users to make a 'confidential and secure' request to an AI tool that can then re-write their messages or send a summary of recent posts in a group chat. The new feature was announced at LlamaCon 2025 at the company's Menlo Park headquarters. Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, also revealed a standalone app for its Meta AI chatbot. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, said the company now had almost one billion people using its AI products. Separately, Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chief executive, told the event that nearly a third of the technology giant's code was being written by AI. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Mint
30-04-2025
- Business
- Mint
Your friend, girlfriend, therapist? What Mark Zuckerberg thinks about future of AI, Meta's Llama AI app, more
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Meta Platforms, thinks that the future of artificial technology (AI) lies in a blended reality, with people being smart enough to choose what is good for them. Speaking to Dwarkesh Patel's podcast titled 'Meta's AGI Plan', Mark Zuckerberg discussed the use of AI in daily life, AI tools and what he envisions is the future of AI. Mark Zuckerberg had a similar chat with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella at Meta's LlamaCon 2025 in California on April 29. When asked by Patel about how AI could ensure healthy relationships for people who already 'meaningfully' interact with 'AI therapists, friends, maybe more', Mark Zuckerberg felt that solutions would have to come as behaviours emerged over time. 'There are a lot of questions that you only can really answer as you start seeing the behaviors. Probably the most important upfront thing is just to ask that question and care about it at each step along the way,' he replied. The tech billionaire was also keen to not box AI among 'things that are not good', explaining that he thinks 'being too prescriptive upfront … often cuts off value'. 'People use stuff that's valuable for them. One of my core guiding principles in designing products is that people are smart. They know what's valuable in their lives. Every once in a while, something bad happens in a product and you want to make sure you design your product well to minimise that. But if you think something, someone, is doing is bad and they think it's really valuable, most of the time in my experience, they're right and you're wrong,' he explained. He added that we need frameworks after understanding why people find value in something and why its helpful in their life. Mark Zuckerberg feels that most people are going to use AI for social tasks, noting, 'Already, one of the main things we see people using Meta AI for is talking through difficult conversations they need to have with people (girlfriend, boss, etc.) in their lives.' He shared his learnings from running a social media company, saying that an average American has fewer than three people they would consider friends, but 'has demand for meaningfully more'. 'There's a lot of concern people raise like: 'Is this going to replace real-world, in-person connections?' And my default is that the answer to that is probably not. There are all these things that are better about physical connections when you can have them. But the reality is that people just don't have as much connection as they want. They feel more alone a lot of the time than they would like,' Mark Zuckerberg said, adding that as AI functions evolve, society will 'find the vocabulary' for this is valuable. Mark Zuckerberg acknowleged that most of the work in virtual therapists, virual-girlfriends related fields 'is very early', adding that Meta's Reality Labs is working on Codec Avatars 'and it actually feels like a real person'. 'That's where it's going. You'll be able to have an always-on video chat with the AI. The gestures are important too. More than half of communication, when you're actually having a conversation, is not the words you speak. It's all the nonverbal stuff. How do we make sure this is not what ends up happening in five years?' he said. Mark Zuckerberg added that its 'crazy' that for how important the digital world is in all our lives, 'the only way we access it is through these physical, digital screens', adding: 'It just seems like we're at the point with technology where the physical and digital world should really be fully blended. But I agree. I think a big part of the design principles around that will be around how you'll be interacting with people.' In a similar conversation with Satya Nadella during LlamaCon 2025, Mark Zuckerberg the two discussed speed of AI development and how the technology is shifting in their companies, AP reported. 'If this (AI) is going to lead to massive increases in productivity, that needs to be reflected in major increases in GDP. This is going take some multiple years, many years, to play out. I'm curious how you think, what's your current outlook on what we should be looking for to understand the progress that this is making?' Zuckerberg asked. Satya Nadella said that 'AI has promise, but has to deliver real change in productivity — and that requires software and also management change, right? Because in some sense, people have to work with it differently.' Meta on April 29 launched its new standalone AI assistant app — Meta AI — powered by the comapny's large language model (LLM) Llama which will compete OpenAI's ChatGPT, among others, according to a Bloomberg report. The application was already rolled out across Meta's other products Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp; and the standalone app makes its available for other users. The app for released at LlamaCon. Mark Zuckerberg described it as "your personal AI — designed around voice conversations', and as a tool that can help users learn about news or navigate personal issues. It will also feature a social feed where people can post about the ways in which they're using AI. 'This is the beginning of what's going to be a long journey to build this out,' Mark Zuckerberg added. First Published: 30 Apr 2025, 10:34 AM IST
The Star
30-04-2025
- Business
- The Star
Meta launches standalone AI app to compete with ChatGPT
Meta chief product officer Chris Cox speaks at LlamaCon 2025, an AI developer conference, in Menlo Park, California, on April 29, 2025. — AP Meta Platforms Inc released a new standalone artificial intelligence app on April 29 in a bid to compete with other popular chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT. The AI assistant, called Meta AI, is built on the back of the company's large language model technology, called Llama, and had been available across the company's various social apps, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook. With the new standalone app, users can access Meta AI without going through Meta's other products. "Meta AI is designed to be your personal AI – that means, first, it's designed around voice conversations,' chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a video posted to Instagram. He described the voice-focused digital assistant as a tool that can help users learn about news or navigate personal issues. OpenAI's ChatGPT quickly became a cultural phenomenon after its release in 2022. Now, Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman pegs the tool's weekly reach at about 800 million users. Meta executives see their chatbot as providing a different experience with its voice and personalization capabilities, and because Meta AI draws data from the company's social media platforms. By tapping data from Meta's sites, the new AI app will have a baseline understanding of its users' interests. "You're going to be able to let Meta AI know a whole lot about you and the people you care about across our apps if you want,' Zuckerberg said. The new standalone app will also feature a social feed where people can post about the ways they're using AI, and will connect to the company's Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. "This is the beginning of what's going to be a long journey to build this out,' Zuckerberg said. Meta announced the app ahead of its inaugural AI-focused conference, called LlamaCon, in Menlo Park, California. During the event, the company also previewed a developer platform it's creating called Llama API, and new efforts to improve inference speeds and better detect and prevent AI-generated scams, fraud and phishing attempts. – Bloomberg
South China Morning Post
30-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Meta introduces Llama application programming interface to attract AI developers
Meta Platforms on Tuesday announced an application programming interface in a bid to woo businesses to more easily build AI products using its Llama artificial-intelligence models. Advertisement Llama API, which was unveiled during the company's first-ever AI developer conference, will help Meta go up against APIs offered by rival model makers including Microsoft -backed OpenAI, Alphabet's Google and emerging low-cost alternatives such as China's DeepSeek. 'You can now start using Llama with one line of code,' chief product officer Chris Cox said during a keynote speech onstage. APIs allow software developers to customise and quickly integrate a piece of technology into their own products. For OpenAI, APIs constitute the firm's primary source of revenue. Meta, which released the latest version of Llama earlier this month, did not share any pricing details for the API. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, right, speaks with Meta Platforms' founder Mark Zuckerberg at LlamaCon 2025, in Menlo Park, California, April 29, 2025. Photo: AP In a press release, it said the new API was available as a limited preview for select customers and would roll out broadly in weeks to months. The company also released a stand-alone AI assistant app earlier on Tuesday. It plans to test a paid subscription service of its AI chatbot in the second quarter, Reuters reported in February. Meta releases its Llama models largely free-of-charge for use by developers, a strategy CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously stated will pay off in the form of innovative products, less dependence on would-be competitors and greater engagement on the company's core social networks. 'You have full agency over these custom models, you control them in a way that's not possible with other offers,' Manohar Paluri, a vice-president of AI, said at the conference. 'Whatever model you customise is yours to take wherever you want, not locked on our servers.' DeepSeek, which has also released partly open-source AI models, sparked a stock sell-off in January amid concerns over the high costs of AI development needed by top US firms. Advertisement At the conference, Meta developers spoke about new techniques they used to significantly reduce costs and improve the efficiency of its newest Llama iteration. Zuckerberg welcomed increased competition that would steer the competitive ecosystem away from domination by a small number of leaders.
