Tech Desk 
Sep 24, 2024
Meta is set to announce an innovative update to its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot at the annual Connect conference this week. The company has partnered with some of the famous international stars including actors Judi Dench, Kristen Bell, John Cena, Awkwafina, and Keegan-Michael Key, to provide voiceovers for the chatbot.
Meta's new audio feature
The five celebrity voices and several generic voice options would be available to users of Meta's ChatGPT-like digital assistant. This innovation would improve the chatbot experience, making it more fascinating and personalised.
Meta's new audio feature availability
The celebrity voices would roll out in the United States and other English-speaking countries through Meta's family of applications, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
This would be rolled out this week, marking a significant milestone in the generative AI journey for Meta.
Read more: OpenAI releases multilingual AI dataset on Humming Face supporting 14 languages
Meta wants to build and deploy its generative AI products to billions of users. It aims to become the biggest player in the emerging technology landscape, in which it already finds itself competing with OpenAI and Google.
While its chatbot is currently capable of both text chats and the generating of images, the company has plans to expand its capabilities further.
Meta experimented with text-based "character" versions of these celebrity-branded chatbot-versions based on Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg-only less than a year ago.
They didn't quite catch on, but Meta has since focused on its AI Studio product, which lets content creators create the chatbot version of them.
OpenAI recently also rolled out an audio feature for its chatbot, but it created a controversy after the actor Scarlett Johansson accused the company of using a voice that seemed like hers without permission. The approach that Meta has taken, partnering with celebrities, may save it from such controversy.
