Meta’s lack of consumer trust could derail its AI plans

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Does Meta have the requisite trust from its audience to make owner Mark Zuckerberg’s artificial intelligence dreams become a reality?

On Monday, Zuckerberg published a 6,500 word manifesto outlining his vision for an AI-led future where everyone will have constant access to their own, customized, personalized AI agents that are able to assist them in all of their daily decisions.

As explained by Zuckerberg: “Everyone will have an exceptionally capable personal agent that understands you, your goals, and everything you care about. Your agent will work 24/7 on your behalf to improve your relationships, health, career, finances, home management, hobbies, and more. It will free up time for the things you enjoy, and help you accomplish more than you could otherwise.”

The concept is something that Zuckerberg himself has been enamoured with for years.

In 2016, Zuckerberg developed his own in-home AI assistant, which he named Jarvis, and which provided him with helpful guidance and notes as he moved around his house.

Jarvis also provided notes on Zuckerberg’s schedule and was able to control the thermostat and the lights. Zuckerberg also enabled messaging through voice prompts.  

That, was a clearly a precursor to Zuckerberg’s evolving AI vision, in which computer systems will be capable of understanding personal insights and information, and translating these insights into helpful guidance and advice to optimize people’s lives

This is another concept Zuckerberg loves. In 2014, Business Insider reported that at Facebook’s first Town Hall company meeting, Zuckerberg said he wears the exact same t-shirt every day to “clear my life, to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community.”

So Zuckerberg loves the concept of being guided by data, and removing what he sees as frivolous decisions from his life..

These insights underpin Zuckerberg’s enthusiasm for AI superintelligence and data-processed guidance that helps to maximize every waking moment.

The problem is that not everyone thinks the way he thinks. In order for Meta to enact this at scale, it would also require every user of its superintelligence tools to entrust Meta with all of these personal insights and data, including information on what’s happening in the home, medical records and financial insights.

Would you trust Meta with all of that?

This has been a core issue for the company since the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2016. Many have claimed that was actually a non-issue, with the Cambridge Analytica group overselling their concept, as opposed to really stealing user insights from Meta.

But it did reveal the extent to which Meta had been exposing user data to various researchers, app developers and advertisers, essentially monetizing people’s personal insights to drive more revenue opportunities for its business.

Global News aired Zuckerberg’s testimony before the U.S. Senate and House, and the fallout led to a significant decline in trust for the business.

In Business Insider’s 2019 Digital Trust Report, Facebook ranked dead last in consumer trust.

That lack of trust then derailed Meta’s 2019 Diem cryptocurrency project, which was meant to facilitate in-app payments.

The project was widely scrutinized, with many regions saying that they would not support the company creating its own currency and gaining more market power. Many of the initial big-name backers, including Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, then pulled out of the Libra Association, and distanced themselves from the business.

The declining trust in the Facebook brand eventually prompted Facebook to rebrand as Meta in 2021, in the hopes of shaking off negative associations of the past.

Though that hasn’t had the desired effect.

According to a 2023 survey conducted by Forbes Advisor (and reported by Electronic Specifier) Meta was the technology company U.K. users trusted the least with their data, with 48% of respondents indicating that they felt Meta was not trustworthy in this respect.

Forrester’s February 2025 Consumer Pulse Survey, meanwhile, showed that just a third of online adults in the U.S and the U.K. trusted Meta the same or more than they did in 2024.

Given its poor trust standing and Meta’s ongoing controversies related to social media addiction, negative impacts on teens, mass hacking and data center developments, it’s hard to imagine that many users will be willing to give over more data to Meta so it can build an AI bot that will provide guidance on their lives.

Meta’s AI glasses are another controversy that threatens to harm the business’s brand. Reports have surfaced about some users drilling out the recording light on the device so that they can record people without them knowing.

Meta’s not necessarily responsible for poor behavior among its users, but it has facilitated such through its tools, which is another mark against its name.

The total harm all of these controversies have done to the Meta brand seems likely to impede its AI progress and halt Zuckerberg’s superintelligence dream in its tracks.

That is, unless Meta can prove the utility of its latest AI models.

Recent history shows that utility will outweigh privacy concerns, and if Meta can demonstrate significant value with its latest AI models, people might still allow Meta to access their sensitive personal information.

But that’s a big ask, and it seems unlikely that a significant number of people will ever agree to this.