Meta could show AI voiced by celebrities like Judi Dench next month

Judi Dench, Keegan-Michael Key and Awkwafina are among several “actors and influencers” whose voices could become part of Meta’s AI offering, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The company is apparently working to close deals quickly so it can develop and showcase the new voices at its Meta Connect conference in September.

Specifically, at least one tool will be “a digital assistant product called MetaAI,” according to multiple unnamed sources in a New York Times report. Meta is negotiating with all of Hollywood’s top talent agencies to secure the voices, which Times he writes. And it can pay the actors who sign “millions of dollars.” goal distributed similar fat piles to celebrities represented by the recently discontinued Meta AI chatbots from last year’s Connect.

The contracts would supposedly be temporary and the actors could choose whether to renew when the term ended. And the voices would be found throughout Meta’s social media stable, seemingly anywhere Meta AI exists today. This includes Facebook and Instagram, as well as Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, the outlet writes. Meta did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.

But each of these implementations reeks of newness and, to me at least, they get old very quickly. Generative AI, however, has proven to be undeniably better at imitating a real human voice, as in OpenAI’s GPT-4o demonstration of a chatbot that sounded surprisingly similar to Scarlett Johansson (which she wasn’t exactly happy with). Hearing Awkwafina’s signature raspy sound will feel a lot less like a cheap gimmick if the famous Meta AI version can do everything the regular version can (although we don’t know if that’s how it will work if and until Meta announces the featured voices).

And I don’t own a pair of Meta Ray-Bans, but I’d be tempted if it meant I could ask the AI ​​Dame Judy Dench to tell me about, I don’t know, the bridge I’m looking at. I like that she gets a negotiated fee for it, and besides, when it lies to me about that bridge, I can just pretend the voice is supposed to be M, Dench. James Bond spy chief, trying to get me out of the way.