The Loneliness Economy: When Innovation Loses Its Soul
Two stories caught my attention this Tuesday that perfectly capture where I believe tech has gone astray as an industry, and why we need to find our way back.
The first: Startups raising tens of millions to build AI "friends" and companions, targeting our epidemic of loneliness with tech solutions, such as $99 necklaces and virtual pets. Companies like Born (raising $15M for AI companions) and Friend (creating AI companion necklaces) are betting big that technology can solve isolation.
The second: The Bay Area tech scene's transformation from "dorky" to "terrifying"—a shift that speaks to how we've abandoned the collaborative, world-improving ethos that once defined us.
Here's an uncomfortable truth we need to face: Tech is literally building artificial relationships to solve problems created by its obsession with engagement over connection.
Think about it. We disrupted human gathering spaces, commodified attention, and designed platforms that deeply fragment communities. Now we're selling AI friends as the natural, solution to this resulting loneliness epidemic. With AI startups pulling in $44B in H1 2025 alone, we're doubling down on technological fixes for fundamentally human problems.
But what if we got this completely backward?
The Story We Should Be Telling
When I entered the job market, I watched as my IBM Selectric typewriter gave way to the remarkable IBM PC and believed strongly in the vision that technology was humanity's great equalizer. Tech was going to lift someone up; every innovation could solve problems that actually mattered in improving people’s lives. That belief wasn't naive; it was foundational.
The most transformative technologies in history didn't just create new markets; rather, they expanded human potential. The printing press didn't just sell books; it democratized knowledge. The internet didn't just connect computers; it connected minds across continents.
AI companions aren't expanding human potential. They're replacing it.
What the "Highest Good" Actually Looks Like
Real innovation serves the highest good when it:
Amplifies human connection rather than replaces it
Solves systemic problems rather than monetizing symptoms
Builds bridges between people rather than walls around individuals
Creates abundance for all, not manufacture scarcity
Instead of AI friends for lonely teenagers, what if we built AI tutors that helped them find their people around shared passions?
Instead of virtual companions for isolated elders, what if we created technology that seamlessly connected them with neighbors, grandchildren, or communities who share their stories?
Instead of monetizing loneliness, what if we designed systems that made authentic human connection accessible and irresistible?
The Choice Before Us
We're at an inflection point. Some critics are calling the foundation of the AI industry "a scam." I don’t believe that AI in and of itself is a total scam, but am very worried about how we're choosing to deploy it, and the cost for that deployment on our environment.
We can continue building technologies that treat symptoms while ignoring root causes. We can keep chasing the next billion-dollar market in human dysfunction.
Or we can remember our “why” behind the work that drew us in the first place.
Every breakthrough technology faces this choice: Will it serve human flourishing, or will it serve quarterly earnings? Will it solve real problems, or create profitable dependencies?
The companies that choose human flourishing won't just build better businesses, but they'll build the kind of future we actually want to live in.
The question isn't whether AI can improve our experience. The question is whether we'll use AI to improve the state of the world.
That's the conversation the industry needs to have. That's the future worth building
What do you think? Are we solving the right problems, or just building better ways to avoid them?