Mark Zuckerberg wants you to know the future belongs to everyone, not just a handful of AI labs. X had some thoughts about who is actually saying that. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece
Mark Zuckerberg wants you to know the future belongs to everyone, not just a handful of AI labs. X had some thoughts about who is actually saying that.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published July 28, the Meta CEO laid out what he called a philosophy for the AI age, one built on:
"individual empowerment as the source of prosperity, invention as the primary purpose of superintelligence, and balance of power as the foundation of safety."
He argued that concentrating superintelligence in the hands of a few institutions is the real danger, not distributing it widely.
"If only a handful of institutions have superintelligence, they will inevitably exercise a controlling influence over economics, science and politics," he wrote, adding that if AI stays focused on empowering individuals rather than pure automation, "we will see more jobs in the future, not fewer."
It's a genuinely optimistic vision. The problem, according to a large chunk of pundits on X, is Zuckerberg's own recent track record, which includes a very public failed crypto bet.
Related: Meta's fresh layoffs trigger major sell-off
Five years ago, Zuckerberg was so convinced virtual reality was the future that he renamed his entire company Meta. That bet cost roughly $80 billion, and this year Meta gutted the division behind it, laying off 10% of the team and quietly killing off new development on Horizon Worlds.
One user summed up the mood bluntly: "Sorry but isn't this same bro who bet 80 billion people would strap goggles to their faces to take business meetings in the 'metaverse'?"
Sorry but isn’t this same bro who bet 80 billion people would strap goggles to their faces to take business meetings in the ‘metaverse’ while pretending to be robots and Temu tier Nintendo characters? https://t.co/6bShTS66cX
— Seán Ono Lennon (@seanonolennon) July 28, 2026
Another was more direct still:
"Everything Zuckerberg has bet on over the last few years has failed. Not sure his 'vision' is something to be trusted."
Crypto didn't go much better. Long before superintelligence, Zuckerberg tried to build his own version of decentralized finance. In 2019, Facebook unveiled Libra, an ambitious global stablecoin project meant to let billions of users move money as easily as sending a text.
Regulators worldwide pushed back hard, and the project, renamed Diem, was shut down in 2022, with its assets sold off for $182 million, a fraction of what Meta had poured into it. Novi, its companion crypto wallet, quietly followed it into shutdown months later.
Zuckerberg appears undeterred. Meta is reportedly building an internal prediction market app called Arena, styled after Polymarket and Kalshi, according to the New York Times.
Polymarket is crypto-native, it runs on the Polygon blockchain and settles every bet in USDC, the dollar-pegged stablecoin, which has made it a fixture among crypto traders and the runaway market leader. Kalshi, a U.S. CFTC-regulated exchange, looks more buttoned-up on paper, but it has leaned into the same rails, its markets are now powered by USDC through a Coinbase Custody partnership, and it accepts stablecoin deposits, pulling in the same young, online, speculation-friendly crowd.
Employees say Meta has explored partnerships with both platforms directly, and while the app will likely start with points instead of real money, the door for actual monetary stakes remains open.
It's Zuckerberg's third attempt at building crypto-adjacent infrastructure in under a decade.
Related: Mark Zuckerberg eyes another billion-dollar market
The sharpest criticism targets the actual thesis of Zuckerberg's op-ed.
"There is a balance between the use of AI as a tool for automation versus as a tool for empowering people to expand their skills and build new businesses," he wrote.
"... if superintelligence is widely distributed, then I believe we will see more jobs in the future, not fewer."
He went further, predicting the economy would grow "more entrepreneurial with a greater number of people working at small businesses rather than larger companies."
As Zuckerberg argues AI will create more jobs, not fewer, Meta laid off roughly 8,000 people in May, about 10% of its workforce, while simultaneously shifting 7,000 employees into AI-focused roles and ramping capital spending toward $145 billion this year, largely on AI infrastructure.
Twenty-six former employees have since sued Meta, alleging its layoff selection process used AI-driven metrics like "token usage" in ways that disproportionately targeted disabled workers and people on medical leave.
One former employee replied directly under Zuckerberg's own post: "I worked for your company... 8 months later I got laid off along with thousands of people. You talk about the future like it's for everyone meanwhile you hire and fire like it's a resource management video game."
I worked for your company as a L5 UX researcher after your recruiters promised me more than double the pay 8 months later I got laid off along with thousands of peopleIf I stayed at my former position I would still have a job You talk about the future like it’s for everyone…
— Darth Flippant (@DarkFlipp) July 28, 2026
Another post simply read, "Fired Meta engineer reading this article," alongside a meme.
Not everyone piled on. David Sacks, the White House's AI and crypto czar, backed Zuckerberg's framing directly, warning that "concentration of power is the biggest risk of AI." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella offered a shorter endorsement, calling it "a good read from Mark."
Related: Meta unveils a surprising new way to pay creators in stablecoins
