I don't think he intended it to be marketing, but kudos to him for being able to spin it as a way to promote Facebook too.
I see it more as R&D than marketing, personally. His personal experiments may likely hint at new directions in which he wants to take his company. Depending on how you view Facebook, this could be terrifying or exciting.
One way I see it is: Facebook knows a lot about your (online) social interactions. Home-based AI would need to know a lot about your private behaviors and preferences. If they marry those two worlds, that's a heck of a lot of behavioral information to have. Google has a big lead in this area already, so if Facebook goes this direction too, it would be an interesting to see how it plays out.
I see it more as R&D than marketing, personally. His personal experiments may likely hint at new directions in which he wants to take his company. Depending on how you view Facebook, this could be terrifying or exciting.
One way I see it is: Facebook knows a lot about your (online) social interactions. Home-based AI would need to know a lot about your private behaviors and preferences. If they marry those two worlds, that's a heck of a lot of behavioral information to have. Google has a big lead in this area already, so if Facebook goes this direction too, it would be an interesting to see how it plays out.