Facebook holds F8 developer conference in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Facebook took over San Francisco's Fort Mason today for its F8 developer conference and CEO Mark Zuckerberg began by speaking his mind.

For Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is about connecting people.

"I want to take a step back for a minute," Mark Zuckerberg said. "I hear fearful voices calling for building walls and distancing people they label as others."

In what many called a direct shot at Donald Trump, he said Facebook's work is more important than ever.

"Instead of building walls, we can help people build bridges," Zuckerberg said.

They'll use things like a solar-powered airplanes to beam down Internet in developing countries.

Zuckerberg announced drones and even the big cameras TV stations use will soon be able to broadcast live directly to Facebook. Already, anyone can go live in the Facebook app.

Like most interactions on Facebook, all of the live videos have a person on the other end. But another big announcement was all about interacting with robots.

"This is basically the future of 1-800 numbers. Instead of having to wait on the phone, go through annoying phone menus and get stuck on hold, you're going to be able to message businesses," said Josh Constine, TechCrunch's editor-at-large.

What answers will be a robot powered by Facebook's artificial intelligence. Shopping app Spring is one of the first.

"The bot is designed to reflect the experience of working with a personal shopper," said Zach Miller Spring vide-president.

And there's Poncho the weather cat. "You can even chat with Poncho, like, 'Hey, what's the weather in San Francisco? What's the weather in Paris?' So we can do all these things through a very natural language," said Kuan Huang, Poncho founder.

And there will be robots that can message you. TechCrunch writer Josh Constine says it benefits Facebook to keep that in check. "Because they know if your messages start being spammy instead of being always your friends, you're not going to open your phone when you buzz and that's a horrible problem for Facebook to have," Constine said.