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Meta’s Ambitious AI Voice Venture: Engaging Conversations with Celebrities
The innovative technology being developed by Meta may soon allow users to interact with a range of famous personalities. Reports from Bloomberg and The New York Times indicate that the company is currently negotiating with an impressive list of stars, including Awkwafina, Judi Dench, and Keegan-Michael Key. These discussions are geared towards integrating their voices into an advanced generative AI-driven assistant called MetaAI, which shares similarities with popular platforms like Siri and Google Assistant.
Voice Integration Across Multiple Platforms
Meta’s strategy involves recording these celebrities’ voices to utilize them extensively across its suite of applications, including Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and even its Ray-Ban smart glasses. According to Bloomberg, although negotiations have encountered several roadblocks due to disagreements over conditions of use, it appears that both parties may have reached a tentative understanding regarding time-bound usage rights for any recorded voice data. This means the celebrity voices could only be employed for a specified duration; however, contracts could potentially see renewals or extensions upon their expiration.
SAG-AFTRA Involvement in Negotiations
The representatives for the actors are advocating for more stringent regulations on voice usage. Nonetheless, SAG-AFTRA has reportedly come to terms with Meta regarding fundamental contractual provisions aimed at safeguarding performers against job displacement caused by AI technologies—an issue prominent during their past strike last year. Under this agreement framework, companies must compensate actors and obtain explicit consent before leveraging any AI-generated representations of their likenesses. If agreements are finalized successfully with the involved actors’ groups by Meta executives, it could result in multi-million dollar compensation packages.
Aiming for Timely Launch Before Connect Conference
The New York Times conveys that Meta aims to wrap up these negotiations ahead of its Connect conference scheduled for September 2024. This event promises the unveiling of a broad array of new artificial intelligence products tailored for consumer interactions. In a previous installment last year at this same event, Meta introduced an interactive chatbot platform featuring 28 unique “characters,” each voiced by well-known figures such as Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton.
A Shift in Strategy Following Initial Setbacks
Interestingly enough,The Information, recent updates suggest that META has decided to discontinue its initial initiative involving celebrity chatbots after facing user engagement challenges leading to their disappearance from Facebook and Instagram pages.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at
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