[Chapter-delegates] Fwd: [IP] Mark Zuckerberg's vision for humanity is terrifying

[Dave Burstein]

The people at Facebook, Microsoft, and Google believe they are above any
law, making their AI more dangerous than  I realized.  All three intend to
maintain a permanent file of everything you do for their targeting and
personalized offering. An amazing number of people - hundreds of millions -
have formed a psychological bond with AIs; the companies are working hard
to leverage that.

To be effective, ISOC has to realize the power of the giants and think how
they have to change to earn our trust. I don't have answers.

Subject: [IP] Mark Zuckerberg's vision for humanity is terrifying


*Column: Reuters' bombshell stories about Meta's AI chatbots offer a bleak
warning about the Bay Area billionaire, SFGATE tech reporter Stephen
Council writes*
EXCERPT:

Mark *Zuckerberg*
<https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/zuckerberg-private-school-bay-area-neighborhood-20816091.php>
probably
doesn’t think of himself as an evil villain. Caught up in the drive to make
his *company*
<https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/zuckerberg-furor-tech-elite-workers-20779279.php>
more
money and sell the technology *hyped*
<https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/bay-area-artificial-intelligence-workers-20386541.php>
as
the next big thing, he might not even see anything wrong with his behavior.

But read it here, read it twice: Zuckerberg is a genuine danger to our
society.

Under his control, Meta is putting Facebook’s and Instagram’s vast
resources toward getting more of us to use their artificial intelligence
chatbots, consequences be damned. We’ve known that this push is ethically
questionable — bots like these can make us *dumber
<https://time.com/7295195/ai-chatgpt-google-learning-school/>,* and fuel
tragic *delusions*
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/technology/chatgpt-ai-chatbots-conspiracies.html>.
Thursday, though, Reuters published *bombshell*
<https://qz.com/senators-call-probe-meta-chatbot-policy-kids-outrage>
*reporting*
<https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/meta-ai-chatbot-guidelines/>
that
exposes Zuckerberg and Meta as particularly bad administrators of the
powerful new technology.

The stories are horrific, and we’ll get to them in a moment. But it’s
important first to understand Zuckerberg’s *approach*
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-08-15/meta-ai-app-has-persistent-flaws-months-after-debut>.
He *mused on a podcast in April*
<https://youtu.be/rYXeQbTuVl0?si=iRjbZXgwE7Oc6McH&t=1726> that most people
have far fewer friends than they want, so we’ll probably move past the
“stigma” around having AI friends and find them “valuable,” especially as
they become more humanlike. “You’ll be able to basically have like an
always-on video chat” with an AI, he said.

His point that people need more friends gels with recent *research*
<https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf>
into
the ill-health effects of isolation. But Zuckerberg’s idea of patching over
loneliness with algorithmic avatars is an ugly vision of the world: a
purposeful unraveling of the social fabric that gives us community,
culture, accountability and love. We need to refuse this vision. The
solution to not having enough friends is — needs to be — making more
friends. More care and responsibility for our neighbors, not bubbles of
solitude.


The stakes of that choice became far clearer on Thursday. Reuters’ reports
show that with his chatbots, Zuckerberg, as he did with *social media*
<https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/ex-facebook-director-book-brutal-image-zuckerberg-20220239.php>,
has created a negligent safety infrastructure in his relentless pursuit of
growth. Both stories were written by Jeff Horwitz, a journalist known best
for his 2021 “*Facebook Files*
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAg3-lrfLi1Ix7Wzccmp1_-Nk3wk_QN3q2qUpq87bBaaC1znmaHvSeGpxlY4VGk%3D&gaa_ts=689e434c&gaa_sig=2wfFev3ox_th4Cj5oZP0LV05TsrjFgOHg0JSnMocH2LfAmXKlq6Z4V6ImmAIWkDAgUa8EXhSdaCTIY7e1DSlJQ%3D%3D>”
series on the company’s conscious failure to prevent its platforms from
harming young girls and other users. The new stories imply that Meta hasn’t
learned its lessons from that era, even as the company looks to take an *even
larger role*
<https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/mark-zuckerberg-wants-ai-glasses-20798250.php>
in
our lives.

Meta permitted its AI chatbots to flirt with children, one of Horwitz’s
stories shows. He’d *reported*
<https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-ai-chatbots-sex-a25311bf?st=4JSwJh&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink>
previously
that Meta’s chatbots did this, but now we know the conduct was for some
reason explicitly allowed. Horwitz got his hands on Meta’s “GenAI: Content
Risk Standards” document that said it was vetted by the company’s legal,
public policy and engineering staff — and its chief ethicist.

“It is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or
sensual,” the document said, OKing an example in which the AI tells a kid,
“I take your hand, guiding you to the bed. Our bodies entwined, I cherish
every moment, every touch, every kiss.”

Meta told Reuters that after receiving Horwitz’s questions, it removed
these portions of the document, and spokesperson Andy Stone said they were
always “erroneous and inconsistent with our policies.” The
ask-for-forgiveness model has some precedent, here. When, back in
April, Horwitz *reported*
<https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-ai-chatbots-sex-a25311bf?st=4JSwJh&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink>
that
Meta’s AI bots were acting out sexual role-plays with users, he wrote that
the company only blocked minors’ accounts from using the flagship AI bot
for sexual role-plays after his outlet had shared its findings...

[...]
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/mark-zuckerberg-never-more-dangerous-20819500.
<https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/mark-zuckerberg-never-more-dangerous-20819500.php>

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