- Meta is reportedly using celebrities like John Cena, Judi Dench, and Awkwafina to voice new AI chatbots.
- Its earlier makes an attempt at AI chatbots utilizing the faces of celebrities like Kendall Jenner and Tom Brady did not catch on.
Meta is reportedly set to introduce AI chatbots voiced by celebrities like John Cena, Awkwafina, Keegan-Michael Key, Kristen Bell, and Dame Judi Dench.
That is, in fact, large information for the underserved market of the Denchbench. (I assume that is the identify of the Judi Dench stan-dom) who have not but discovered the precise purpose to experiment with an AI voice chatbot.
For the remainder of us, the logic behind Meta’s celeb collaboration is a bit more perplexing.
Round this time final yr, Meta introduced a different round of celebrity AI assistants as a part of Messenger. These chatbots had the faces of celebrities like Kendall Jenner, Mr. Beast, Tom Brady, Snoop Dogg, and extra. Unusually, these chatbots used the likenesses of the celebrities, however not their actual names. For instance, I chatted with “Billie,” the character portrayed with a picture of Kendall Jenner, whose chat persona was of a useful sister-like pal.
For the celebrity-faced AI assistants, Meta reportedly paid as much as $5 million over two years — for six hours of labor sitting in a studio. The deal did not appear to work out too effectively for Meta. The chatbots were discontinued by August, lower than a yr after their launch.
So why is Meta utilizing the celeb AI playbook once more if it apparently crashed and burned final time?
Celebrities would possibly assist AI be much less threatening
Possibly final yr’s chatbots weren’t a failure by some metrics. Certain, individuals did not appear curious about sticking round speaking to faux Tom Brady, however possibly the aim was to get sufficient individuals to attempt utilizing an AI chatbot only one time — and the celeb gimmick labored for that.
Or possibly Meta simply has a very unusual relationship with the idea of celeb: It is not a model like Doritos that makes use of celebrities in Tremendous Bowl advertisements or a trend home the place an actress is the face of a fragrance. Instagram has been so embedded within the idea of fame and celeb for the final decade that it is unimaginable to think about Meta and well-known individuals current with out one another (whereas I can think about Doritos getting alongside simply high quality).
When Meta’s Threads launched in the summertime of 2023, an actual stress appeared: Huge, A-list celebrities — the sort who hadn’t used Twitter in years — abruptly flocked to the brand new platform, bringing huge follower counts with them. However most of these celebrities went silent after a day or two, maybe realizing {that a} text-based medium wasn’t actually their jam. Just a few months later, Meta rolled out a program to provide money bonuses to actuality stars in alternate for posting on Threads.
When Taylor Swift released her latest album, she did publish to Threads, the place Mark Zuckerberg enthusiastically posted to welcome her. There was even a customized sparkle impact made for customers after they typed her album identify. However after Meta rolled out the welcome mat for the star, she by no means posted once more on Threads.
And lately, when Swift made her announcement supporting Kamala Harris, she did it solely on Instagram — not even a cross-post to the platform’s text-native cousin (for good reasons, as my colleague Peter Kafka explains).
Post by @zuck
View on Threads
There have been different flops within the celebrity-Meta-ad world. In 2019, Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez, two celebrities whose endorsements normally aren’t low-cost, starred in three TV spots to advertise the Fb Portal. The Portal was discontinued in late 2022.
How celebrities will help Meta
So, Meta counting on celeb voices for its AI merchandise feels just a little odd to me. Meta’s merchandise are normally actually good at promoting themselves as a result of individuals love to make use of them. Celebrities even use them — with out getting paid!
However reuniting the solid of “Modern Family” for a WhatsApp ad suggests Meta is perhaps utilizing celebs to succeed in normies who may not usually be utilizing AI or WhatsApp. And with these newest AI assistant voices, Meta is just not going with the most popular Gen Z influencers; it is utilizing Judi Dench, in spite of everything.
I imply, no less than Meta did not “by accident” hire a soundalike of a well-known celebrity to be the voice for an AI companion like, uh, another AI opponents. Might be worse!
Maybe it is simply that AI continues to be just a little scary and impersonal, and Meta execs suppose placing a celeb face — or voice — to it is going to assist make it really feel extra accessible. Oddly, the flexibility of AI to impersonate celebrities is likely one of the issues I believe many individuals concern concerning the know-how. However, ah effectively.
My ultimate guess as to Meta’s play right here is that these selections come from someplace deep inside the corporate, maybe a choice based mostly on an govt’s intuition about what’s going to pop, blended with some information from the advertising and marketing crew. I am positive many conferences have been held!
I nonetheless maintain on to my private pet principle: Yann LeCun is a frothing fan of “The Greatest Unique Marigold Resort” franchise and demanded the Dame.
