Zuckerberg launches AI optimism push using nostalgia amid worker backlash

On Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a short video with the caption "As we enter this next wave with AI, we continue to believe the future is for everyone," evoking the company's early years of tech optimism. The video's voiceover states, "Call us optimists, call us dreamers, call us whatever the hell you want, but we're betting on people, and we like those odds." The visual narrative shows people using Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Meta's Ray-Ban glasses to film and share moments with loved ones, set to calm music and featuring scenes of concerts, snowboarding, and children laughing. The framing deliberately mirrors Meta's original 22-year-old mission of connecting friends and family.

Marketing experts interpret this strategy as a response to growing backlash. Mara Einstein, a media studies professor at CUNY's Queens College, told Fortune that while the video shows people having a great time, it "are not really responding to what the fundamental issue is, which is how is AI going to impact me when I start dealing with your platform when you integrate all of that technology into it." Ana Babic Rosario, a marketing professor at the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business, noted that Meta appears to be "inviting audiences to evaluate AI through the lens of the company's original identity rather than its more recent reputation." She highlighted that the imagery and language evoke an earlier era, particularly relevant given Meta's recent struggles: last week, Meta employees sued the company for allegedly using AI in 8,000 layoffs that disproportionately targeted workers on medical, parental, or family leave. Employees at Meta's Applied AI unit also compared working conditions to a "gulag" and described tasks as "soul crushing." Additionally, the company scrapped an AI-generated images pilot on Instagram and faces a lawsuit over its Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

Meta's nostalgic approach mirrors broader efforts by AI leaders to reframe narratives around the technology's impact on employment. OpenAI's Sam Altman previously stated in a June 2025 panel that "Today [AI] is like an intern that can work for a couple of hours but at some point it'll be like an experienced software engineer that can work for a couple of days," suggesting widespread job displacement. However, less than a year later, Altman pivoted, saying he was "delighted" to be wrong about AI's entry-level job impact and noting, "I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than has actually happened." Anthropic's Dario Amodei has similarly shifted ground: he once claimed AI could eliminate 50% of white-collar jobs but recently argued that automation may expand work by automating only parts of each job. "If you automate 90% of the job," Amodei said, "then everyone does the 10% of the job. And the 10% kind of expands to be 100% of what people do and kind of 10xs their productivity." Both leaders are making these statements as their companies prepare for IPOs.

Jannine Lasaleta, a Yeshiva University professor studying nostalgia's effects on consumer behavior, explained to Fortune that since AI is stereotypically perceived as "artificial" and "not real," nostalgia helps counter that perception by making the overall experience feel more genuine and human. "Tapping into nostalgia is a really clever and reliable way to not only promote social connection but also to show that these are platforms that we have been using in the past and also now to connect with others," Lasaleta said. The broader context shows increasing resistance to AI: white-collar workers are rejecting their companies' AI tools, and protests against data centers are spreading across the country.

Meta's video release comes amid a year of mounting tension between AI optimism and worker concerns. The company is leaning into nostalgic imagery—concerts, children, personal connections—precisely when it faces lawsuits over AI-driven layoffs and criticism of its AI unit's working conditions. Marketing experts say this positioning is strategic: by invoking Facebook's 22-year-old promise to connect people, Meta frames AI as a natural extension of its founding mission rather than a tool that poses risks to employment. The timing is not accidental; the video arrives as other AI leaders—notably OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei—have begun walking back earlier warnings about AI's job-displacement potential, each shifting toward more optimistic narratives as their companies prepare for IPOs. Amodei's claim that automation will merely reduce tasks to 10% of each job while workers "expand" that remainder frames AI as a productivity multiplier rather than a replacement mechanism. These reframings occur against a backdrop of real worker resistance: white-collar employees are rejecting their companies' AI tools, and protests against data centers are increasing nationwide.

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