Meta developing AI version of Mark Zuckerberg

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg could soon have an AI version of himself that can interact with employees in his stead. According to a report by the Financial Times, the US group is working on the development of photorealistic, AI-powered 3D characters with which users can interact in real-time. The paper refers to four people familiar with the matter.

The company has reportedly recently begun to prioritize an AI avatar of Zuckerberg and is training it on his mannerisms, tone of voice, and publicly available statements, as well as Zuckerberg's current thoughts on corporate strategies, “so that employees feel more connected to the founder through interaction with him.” According to one of the sources, the Meta boss is personally involved in training and testing his animated AI. However, the project is still in its early stages.

In March, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Zuckerberg is developing an AI agent of himself to support him as CEO. However, according to the Financial Times, this project is independent of Meta's work on an AI avatar of the CEO that is intended to offer employees conversations and feedback.

Billions for AI expansion

According to the Financial Times, the development of AI-powered 3D characters is part of a broader initiative to realign the Meta group with the help of AI. The company is investing billions in expanding its AI capabilities. In early April, it became known that Meta is acquiring AI cloud capacity worth 21 billion US dollars over six years from CoreWeave. One day earlier, Meta presented its new flagship AI model, Muse Spark, the first model from the newly established AI department Meta Superintelligence Labs. This is the central building block of Meta's plan to develop a “personal superintelligence.”

As the Financial Times reports, citing insiders, Zuckerberg is becoming increasingly actively involved in Meta's AI offensive. He reportedly spends five to ten hours a week programming various AI projects at the company and participates in technical reviews.

Photorealistic representation and voice interaction

According to people familiar with the matter, Meta's Superintelligence Labs has developed a new series of AI characters. The company is focusing, the Financial Times writes, on creating photorealistic representations of virtual AI characters, among other things. However, scaling the project is proving difficult, as implementation and avoiding delays in user interaction require a lot of computing power.

In addition, Meta is working on improving voice interaction with the AI characters. Last year, the group acquired the two AI startups PlayAI, which is working on generating natural-sounding voices for AI voice agents, and WaveForms, which is trying to enable emotionally resonant conversations between humans and machines.

(akn)