Zuckerberg says billions may use personal AI agents within five years

In short: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors he expects billions of people to have personal AI agents within five years.

What's going on

Mark Zuckerberg made the prediction during Meta’s quarterly earnings call, a regular update where the company talks with investors about business results and plans. He said it is “extremely unlikely” that, five years from now, billions of people will not have a personal agent that understands their goals and works for them around the clock.

A “personal AI agent” is software that can do tasks for you, not just answer questions. You can think of it like a digital assistant that can take actions (more like a helper who can run errands, not just a search box). Zuckerberg said these agents could help people manage finances, health, relationships, and household tasks.

He also said messaging apps like WhatsApp could become more important as people interact with multiple agents. Meta says WhatsApp is already a main place where users interact with Meta AI.

This push comes as several big companies are betting on agents. TechCrunch notes that Google has been promoting custom AI agents as part of changes to Google Search, and that subscriptions to Anthropic’s Claude have been rising.

What to watch

Meta is spending heavily to build the computers and buildings needed to run AI, often called “AI infrastructure” (the behind-the-scenes engines and warehouses that power the software). After earnings, Meta’s stock fell almost 10%, and the company reported free cash flow of $784 million, down 91% from the same quarter last year. Meta and BlackRock also announced a partnership to build a $14 billion data center in El Paso, Texas, which is the kind of facility used to run large amounts of computing.

Source: TechCrunch AI