In its latest manifesto, “The Future is for Everyone,” Meta paints a dazzling picture of the next decade: a world where superintelligence is democratized, eight-year-olds code complex software, and personal AI tutors cure societal inequality. The essay aggressively positions Meta not as a tech monolith, but as a digital Robin Hood, wresting control of AI from elite institutions and placing it directly into the hands of the people.
But beneath the populist rhetoric and promises of “individual empowerment,” the essay reveals a deeply flawed, self-serving corporate strategy. Meta is selling a utopian future, but a closer read shows they are simply building a new kingdom where they own all the roads.
I’d start with the question: When has Mark Zuckerberg willingly done anything that benefitted humanity at a cost to himself? Just this weekend he came under fire as his private yacht ignored a call for help from a skiff that ran out of gas. He has also repeatedly failed on privacy and manipulation. You only have to look back to January of this year when a dataset containing the personal information of 17.5 million Instagram users surfaced on a dark web marketplace after it was scraped via an insecure API endpoint. And while it’s investing in AI, it has gutted its investment in privacy, trust and safety. Investigative reports by Swedish media revealed that sensitive videos recorded by users’ Meta AI glasses were being sent to third-party human contractors to review and annotate. Contractors reported reviewing highly sensitive footage, including people’s bank details, people using the toilet, and even individuals having sex.
Now he’s selling Meta as the good guy on AI?
The essay promises a 24/7 personal agent that understands your “relationships, health, career, finances, home management, hobbies.” Meta assures readers this will be protected by “strong privacy and security options,” likening it to WhatsApp encryption. Meta’s core business model has always been the extraction and monetization of human attention and behavioral data. The “personal agent” is the ultimate Trojan horse, disguised as a helpful butler, designed to intermediate every interaction a person has with the digital and physical world.
Not only that, I’m finding the arguments about job displacement tiresome. This garbled paragraph is what Meta is selling:
Companysizesmayshrink—justastheydidinthetransitionfromindustrialgiantstotechcompanies.Butthisdoesn’tmeanfewerjobsoverall.Itimpliesalargernumberofcompanieswithfewerpeopleeach.Therearemanymorevaluablecompaniesandservicestobuildthanpeopleareabletobuildtoday.Iexpectwewillstartseeingsmallnumbersofpeoplewithpersonalsuperintelligenceagentsabletoruncompaniesatsignificantscale.Inthefuture,smallbusinesseswillcontinuetobethebackboneoftheeconomy,buteachsmallbusinesswillbeabletohaveamuchlargerimpact.
All told, I like the idea of democratizing AI but there is zero chance that Mark Zuckerberg is going to be the person to do that in any kind of benevolent way.
In any case, shares of Meta are up 2% and I have no doubt that Meta will use any infor they can glean from ‘superintelligence’ for the same fuction that they do everything: advertising.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.
