Does Mark Zuckerberg Want You to Use Instagram, Facebook Even More?
Zuckerberg has previously said that AI-driven recommendations have already increased time spent on Facebook and Instagram by several percentage points.
If your Instagram feed feels harder to put down lately, that is not entirely accidental. Meta is quietly doubling down on artificial intelligence, and the goal is simple: keep you scrolling longer.
According to a recent report, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has put together an elite team of AI researchers focused specifically on improving recommendation systems across Facebook and Instagram. The new unit, internally linked to Meta’s recommendation systems division, is designed to refine what content shows up on your feed and how often you engage with it.
A new AI team with a clear objective
The team, reportedly led by former TikTok executive Yang Song, is tasked with building more advanced algorithms that can better predict what users want to see. That sounds harmless, even useful. But the underlying objective is not just relevance. It is retention.
Recommendation systems already decide most of what appears on social media feeds. By improving these systems with more advanced AI models, Meta is effectively trying to increase the time users spend on its platforms.
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This is not new territory for the company. Zuckerberg has previously said that AI-driven recommendations have already increased time spent on Facebook and Instagram by several percentage points.
Now, Meta appears to be scaling that effort further.
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Why AI is central to Meta’s strategy
Meta’s broader push into AI goes beyond just recommendations. The company is investing heavily in AI infrastructure, talent, and tools, with Zuckerberg describing 2026 as a year where AI will “dramatically” reshape how the company operates.
The idea is to make feeds more personalised, more immersive, and more engaging. AI is being used not just to recommend content, but increasingly to generate it as well. This means your feed could soon be a mix of posts from friends, creators, and AI-generated content, all curated to maximise engagement.
The timing is not accidental
The move comes at a sensitive moment for Meta. The company has faced growing scrutiny over the impact of its platforms on user behaviour, including concerns around addiction and mental health.
At the same time, competition from platforms like TikTok has forced Meta to rethink how it keeps users engaged. TikTok’s algorithm-first approach has set a new standard for content discovery, and Meta is trying to match or surpass it using AI.
Building an elite AI team is part of that response.
What this means for users
In practical terms, users are likely to see:
- More personalised feeds
- Faster adaptation to viewing habits
- Increased volume of recommended and possibly AI-generated content
The upside is better content discovery. The downside is that the line between useful engagement and excessive screen time becomes thinner. The algorithm gets better at knowing what you want. Whether that is a good thing depends on how much control you want to keep.