BIG by Matt Stoller

In a little noticed interview, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg offers a host of exceptionally creepy comments.

Lots of important monopoly-related things happened last week. Now that Apple’s app store monopoly is broken, developers are cutting prices and building cool stuff. The tariff shock is about to hit in force, but the stock market has recovered all of its losses since April 2nd. Plus a lot more.

But before getting to the full round-up, I want to focus on the social future that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is building for all of us, whether we like it or not, and how reliant it is on the firm’s market power.

Take a recent viral clip about a future of AI friends, therapists, and girlfriends, from an interview he did on the Dwarkesh podcast. Zuckerberg talked how Americans on average have only three friends, but want fifteen. He then explained that though emotional connections with AI bots are socially disfavored now, eventually society will “find the vocabulary” to understand that people who use AI to fill a hole of loneliness in their lives are “rational.”