As AI Reshapes Society, Alexandria Entrepreneur Bets on Human Connection

ALEXANDRIA, VA – As artificial intelligence races into nearly every corner of daily life, an Alexandria technology entrepreneur is making an unusual prediction about the future: the most valuable resource in the AI era may not be technology at all—it may be friendship.

Pete O’Dell, an Alexandria resident and CEO of Perdata.ai, believes that while artificial intelligence is transforming how people work, communicate, and consume information, society risks overlooking a growing crisis of loneliness and social isolation. Rather than building another social media platform designed to keep users glued to their screens, O’Dell is developing technology intended to bring people together in real life.

“Artificial intelligence is beginning to alter how we work, how we communicate, how we consume information, and perhaps even how we define human value,” O’Dell said. “But the bigger issue may be what happens to human relationships.”

The Loneliness Epidemic and the Digital Irony

O’Dell’s concern comes at a time when public health experts are sounding alarms about loneliness. Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared loneliness and social isolation a public health epidemic in 2023, citing significant impacts on both physical and mental health.

“England and Japan had already recognized loneliness as a national issue before the United States did,” O’Dell said. “Yet we still don’t have a major national effort focused on addressing it.”

The irony, he says, is that Americans have never been more digitally connected. Social media platforms connect billions of users worldwide, but many people report feeling increasingly isolated despite spending hours online each day.

A New Platform for Real-Life Gathering

O’Dell’s answer is FriendshipEvent.com, a downloadable digital platform that allows users to create and manage friendship-focused events. Available now, the platform enables individuals to organize gatherings of up to 100 people free of charge. The technology is also licensed to businesses, nonprofits, schools, and community organizations hosting larger events.

“Anybody can use FriendshipEvent.com today,” O’Dell said. “You can create an event for up to 100 people for free using our technology.”

The platform is part of a larger effort by Perdata.ai to build tools that help people make new friends, maintain existing relationships, and connect with trusted communities outside the advertising-driven world of traditional social media.

“We’re trying to build an ecosystem that helps people make new friends, manage the friendships they have, and share information with people they actually know and trust,” he said.’

Redefining Connections and Prioritizing Privacy

Unlike many social media platforms that measure success through likes, followers, and engagement metrics, O’Dell says his company focuses on creating opportunities for face-to-face interaction.

“Many of the people we interact with online aren’t really friends,” he said. “You wouldn’t call them at two in the morning. You wouldn’t invite them over for dinner. People are spending larger parts of their lives isolated on their phones instead of being with real people.”

O’Dell’s interest in technology began during his service in the U.S. Army from 1975 to 1979. After using the GI Bill to attend college, he worked in the defense industry before building a career with major technology companies and startups, including Digital Equipment Corporation and Autodesk.

Today, Perdata.ai is headquartered in Alexandria, with O’Dell working alongside co-founders and team members located elsewhere in the country.

The company’s approach also addresses growing concerns about privacy. O’Dell says users maintain control over their information, and data is managed through trusted organizations rather than rolled into large advertising databases.

The Ultimate AI Challenge: Trust

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable of generating realistic text, images, audio, and video, O’Dell believes trusted personal relationships will become even more valuable.

He observed that the most significant social hurdle posed by AI might not be the rise of automation, but rather the implications for privacy and security.

Whether used by neighborhoods, schools, conferences, civic groups, or community organizations, O’Dell hopes the platform will help people rediscover something technology often overlooks: the importance of genuine human connection.

As automation and algorithms continue to redefine our world, O’Dell suggests that friendship could emerge as a critical and lasting social technology for humanity.

Learn more about the friendship social technologies here at www.getconexus.com