Mark Zuckerberg has published a lengthy new essay outlining the future he envisions for humanity living alongside artificial intelligence. The Meta chief executive’s manifesto, titled “The Future is for Everyone”, spans more than 6,500 words and broadly sets out his beliefs on how the technology should be developed, expanded and regulated, and how Meta is positioning itself to enable those goals.
The essay, published on Monday, echoes a shorter public letter Zuckerberg released last year, which championed public access to superintelligent AI. The term refers to artificial general intelligence (AGI) models capable of surpassing human intelligence, which AI companies are racing to develop. Both texts share similar intentions: to promote the personal, societal and economic benefits of the technology, and to present Meta as a responsible steward of that future.
Winning public support for data centres
Zuckerberg devoted part of the essay to Meta’s approach to the ongoing controversy surrounding AI data centre projects. “Sustainable infrastructure development means that communities must benefit significantly from each project,” he wrote. The plans include pledges to build energy-generating infrastructure “wherever we invest”, potentially returning low-cost energy to local communities, and a commitment to “restore more water than we use in the watersheds where we operate by 2030”.
Meta is also launching a Future Is For Everyone Fund to support local communities. Zuckerberg said the company is providing free training and “guaranteed high-paying jobs” for skilled tradespeople in areas where it is building data centres.
Open AI and lighter regulation
The company plans to focus on “delivering personal superintelligence to billions of people and small businesses”, arguing this will help everyone become more entrepreneurial. Part of the strategy involves offering the technology “for free or as affordably as possible” and releasing more open source AI models that anyone can download. Zuckerberg claimed this would bring “an abundance of personal agency, expression of ideas, deepening of relationships, economic and financial prosperity, improved health, and inventions we cannot imagine today”. He acknowledged it would affect “some aspects of the way we work” but dismissed concerns that AI would reduce overall employment.
Zuckerberg also stressed the importance of the United States leading the open source AI ecosystem, citing concerns that competing models from foreign labs “hold several advantages” because they face fewer training data restrictions. He argued that the US needs to rethink policies around distillation and data use, warning that the country will struggle to keep pace if it continues to restrict AI models from learning from other models.
“I do not believe restricting access to foreign open source models is an effective solution,” Zuckerberg wrote. These concerns come in response to the release of open-weight models from Chinese AI companies.
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Image: theverge.com
