New Delhi: Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is set to announce this week that it has partnered with renowned actors, including Judi Dench, Kristen Bell, and John Cena, to provide voices for its AI chatbot.
The new audio feature will allow users to choose from a list of five celebrities, including Awkwafina and Keegan-Michael Key, as well as several generic voice options, for Meta’s ChatGPT-like digital assistant. This innovative feature is expected to be unveiled at the company’s annual Connect conference, which begins on Wednesday.
In addition to the celebrity voices, Meta is also anticipated to showcase a first version of its augmented reality glasses and discuss its roadmap for other hardware devices, such as its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses already feature an audio version of the Meta AI chatbot.
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The celebrity voices will initially be available in the United States and other English-speaking markets across Meta’s family of apps. This move comes after reports earlier this summer suggested that Meta was in talks with celebrities to use their voices for AI projects. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently shared a promotional video on Instagram featuring John Cena, showcasing the two engaging in stunts while wearing Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
Meta has been actively developing generative artificial intelligence products to compete with industry leaders like OpenAI and Google. As part of this effort, the company has been continuously enhancing its chatbot and integrating it more deeply into its apps.
OpenAI, a competitor in the field, introduced a similar audio feature for its chatbot in May. However, the company faced criticism from actress Scarlett Johansson, who accused OpenAI of creating a voice that sounded eerily similar to hers without her consent.
Meta’s assistant currently supports text chats and image generation. The company previously experimented with celebrity-inspired “character” versions of the chatbot, but these did not gain significant traction.
Meta has since shifted its focus to an AI Studio product that allows content creators to create chatbot versions of themselves. This new feature, coupled with the celebrity voices, is expected to make Meta’s AI chatbot more engaging and accessible to users.
