In September 2023, Meta launched its Meta AI assistant as well as a range of AI-powered chatbots exhibiting different personalities based on celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, who agreed to have their voice and likeness used in the feature.
The so-called AI characters were developed as Zuckerberg noted the success of AI companion start-up Character AI, particularly with younger users, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Meta later rolled out an “AI Studio,” which allows users to generate their own AI characters, or creators to build AI versions of themselves to chat with fans.
However, the persona efforts faced controversy last year following reports that users were generating overtly sexual characters, amid concerns from the public and regulators over child safety. Since January, Meta has restricted teen access to its AI characters.
According to people familiar with the matter, Meta’s newly formed Superintelligence Labs have explored a fresh set of characters.
The company has focused in part on making photorealistic embodiments of virtual AI characters, four people said. But scaling the effort has been difficult as the technology requires lots of computing power to achieve realism and avoid a lag in interactions with users.
Meta has also been working on improving voice interactions with the characters. Last year, it acquired two voice companies, PlayAI and WaveForms.
The Zuckerberg character will be trained on images of the chief executive as well as his voice, one person said. If the experiment is a success, influencers and creators might one day be able to do the same, the person added.
Meta has been pushing employees to use AI technology internally to streamline processes and become more efficient. Employees are being encouraged to use agentic tools from the open source software OpenClaw and design their own agents to automate tasks.
Product managers are being invited to do an AI-focused “skills baseline exercise,” according to several people familiar with the matter. This includes a technical system design test, as well as an exercise in “vibe coding.”
Some staff fear this could be a prelude to job cuts. Meta said the exercise was not mandatory and designed to establish where product managers might need extra training and development.
Additional reporting by Cristina Criddle in San Francisco
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