Mark Zuckerberg appears to have a rather dystopian solution to the current loneliness epidemic affecting millions of Americans, young and old — and, if fully realized, it would only make the crisis worse.

If you wanted to pinpoint the spike in loneliness and depression among Americans, particularly among teens, you would probably look to the advent of smartphones and social media during the early 2010s, when both kids and adults spent increasing time online, glued to screens, isolated from friends and colleagues, communicating via texts and DMs rather than in face-to-face. During a recent podcast on April 29, Zuckerberg alluded to a new way to mitigate the isolation and loneliness, suggesting that people who seek more connections and friendship may eventually find it with artificially intelligent chatbots.

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