Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, is set to unveil a new feature this week that will allow users to select celebrity voices for its Meta AI chatbot. According to a source familiar with the company's plans, deals have been secured with actors such as Judi Dench, Kristen Bell, and John Cena to provide their voices for the digital assistant.
The new audio feature will offer users a choice between five celebrity voices, including Awkwafina and Keegan-Michael Key, as well as several generic options. This announcement is expected to be made at Meta's annual Connect conference, which begins on Wednesday.
In addition to the audio capabilities, Meta is also anticipated to showcase the first version of its augmented-reality glasses and discuss its plans for other hardware devices, such as the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The celebrity voices will be available in the US and other English-speaking markets this week across Meta's suite of apps, which includes Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
This move comes as Meta continues to compete with Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Alphabet's Google in the race to dominate generative artificial intelligence. The company has been enhancing its chatbot's capabilities and integrating it more prominently into its app experiences. While OpenAI introduced a similar audio feature for its chatbot in May, it faced controversy when Scarlett Johansson accused the company of using her voice without permission.
Meta's assistant currently supports text chats and image generation in response to user prompts. Last year, the company experimented with celebrity-inspired text-based chatbots, but these did not gain significant traction. Meta has since refocused its efforts on an AI Studio product that allows content creators to develop chatbot versions of themselves.
