Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg could soon have an AI clone of himself to interact with and provide feedback to employees, according to a report from the Financial Times.
The Financial Times reports that the $1.6 trillion company has been working on photorealistic, AI-powered 3D characters that users can interact with in real time, according to four people familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, Meta has begun prioritizing a Zuckerberg AI character, three of those people said.
The Meta chief is personally involved in training and testing his animated AI double, which could hold conversations with employees and offer them feedback, according to one person with knowledge of the project. They added that the character is being trained on the billionaire’s mannerisms, tone and publicly available statements, as well as his own recent thinking on company strategies, so that employees might feel more connected to the founder through interactions with it.
The project remains at an early stage and is distinct from Zuckerberg’s separate effort to build a “CEO agent” to assist him in his role, for instance by retrieving information quickly, an idea first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
People familiar with the matter said Zuckerberg has become increasingly hands-on as he oversees Meta’s AI push. One person said he spends five to 10 hours a week coding on various AI projects at the company and attending technical reviews.
Meta’s interest in AI characters dates back to September 2023, when it launched its Meta AI assistant alongside a range of AI-powered chatbots displaying different personalities based on celebrities including Snoop Dogg, who agreed to have his voice and likeness used in the feature. Several people familiar with the matter said the so-called AI characters were developed after Zuckerberg noted the success of AI companion start-up Character AI, particularly among younger users.
The company later introduced “AI Studio”, which lets users create their own AI characters or allows creators to build AI versions of themselves to chat with fans. However, the persona efforts attracted controversy last year when reports emerged that users were generating overtly sexual characters, raising concerns from the public and regulators about child safety. Meta has since restricted teen access to its AI characters from January.
Breitbart News social media director and author Wynton Hall reveals in his instant bestseller, Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, that AI companions are part of “a growing digital trend that upends traditional notions of courtship, dating, and marriage.”
Hall writes that AI companion contribute to loneliness and isolation. About half of U.S. adults experienced loneliness, with young adults among the most affected, according to a 2023 report by Murthy.
“The ramifications of isolation are profound,” Hall asserts. “The CDC has found that loneliness increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, dementia, depression, anxiety, suicidality, self- harm, and premature death.”
“Unsurprisingly, when people do not interact, they do not date, marry, or reproduce. This correlates with the CDC’s 2024 report of the lowest ever U.S. fertility rate,” the author adds.
Read more at the Financial Times here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.
