AI: Meta wants the voices of celebrities
No more celebrity chatbots, but celebrity voices for AI - Meta is apparently still looking for the right way to use Meta AI.
(Image: ymgerman/shutterstock.com)
Last fall, Meta announced AI chatbots at its own Connect trade fair, which were based on various celebrities. Snoop Dog, Paris Hilton, athletes, influencers and more were to serve as AI assistants. They no longer exist. Apparently, the AI celebrities were not a success. But now Meta is once again negotiating with celebrities to license their voices – also for AI purposes.
Meta is reportedly talking to actors Judy Dench and Keegan-Michael Key and US rapper Awkwafina, among others. According to the New York Times, negotiations are underway with all the major agencies in Hollywood that handle stars. Millions of US dollars are to be paid for the rights to the voices. It is unclear why Meta wants to offer celebrity voices instead of chatbots with a celebrity touch. The voices are to be integrated into all Meta AI products, i.e. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Meta's smart glasses from Ray Ban. In the latter, the AI can be accessed via voice input - so the voices would be an obvious choice here.
Meta is expected to present new developments in the field of AI, and above all Meta AI, including AI voices at Connect in September.
Just a few days ago, Meta announced that users would be able to build their own AI characters in the AI Studio. The target group appears to be influencers who can answer their followers' questions via AI assistants and thus make their own work easier. However, Custom AI is once again only available in the USA.
Celebrity voices in AI services
Waze also uses celebrity voices to show people the way on request. Waze is a navigation app that was acquired by Google many years ago. You can choose from various Waze voices in the settings.
Other AI providers are also trying to make money with celebrity voices. However, this has also been met with plenty of criticism. OpenAI's new voice mode, for example, is supposed to sound like Scarlett Johansson in her movie role as Her. The actress is not at all happy about this and has expressed this publicly. Record labels are taking action against AI-generated music that uses styles and, above all, the voices of well-known musicians. There are numerous apps that offer artificial versions of the voices of well-known personalities. Legally, however, this is also more than questionable.
Private individuals who have fallen victim to deepfakes, for example by having something put in their mouth that they did not say, can at least complain to YouTube about the videos. Taking action against deepfakes is usually rather difficult because it is often impossible to track down the creators.
(emw)
