Why trust Greenbot
Meta is enlisting a star-studded roster of celebrities for its MetaAI projects across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The negotiations, aiming to be finalized before the Connect 2024 event in September, could see big names like Awkwafina, Judi Dench, and Keegan-Michael Key lending their voices to Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, similar to Siri and Google Assistant.
The rise of AI chatbots emerged with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, prompting numerous tech giants to compete by innovating new interaction methods with chatbots. These include enabling bots to scout out the internet in real time and allowing users to upload media files.
Currently, companies are striving to evolve beyond text-based interactions towards fully voiced virtual assistants, with Meta also pursuing this advancement.
This deal has been going on and off for a long time now, as the two parties can’t seem to reach an agreement on the terms of use. The current agreement with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) puts Meta on a time limit for which it is allowed to use the recorded materials, which they have to renew once the contract has expired. Meta is anticipated to spend millions to secure consent from the actors involved.
SAG-AFTRA, a labor union of about 160,000 people working in the media and entertainment industries, is known for fighting for fair compensation and protecting actors from the threat of AI. Last year, they reached an agreement with Hollywood studios after a four-month strike, where several of their concerns were addressed, including an “AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses,” according to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers‘ statement.
Meta has to navigate its way through organizations like SAG-AFTRA in order to succeed in this project. The suspension of one of OpenAI’s voice-related chatbots after actress Scarlett Johansson accused them of wrongly imitating her voice exemplifies several challenges that might hinder their endeavor.
Meta refused to comment on the topic, but previous reports have shown the company has spent billions on AI technology and infrastructure. Their forecasted budget for AI spending had been increased from a staggering $30 billion to $37 billion.
“I’d rather build capacity before it is needed rather than too late,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the earnings call.
On Connect 2023, the company announced their 28 chatbots with varying celebrity personas, from Kendall Jenner to Tom Brady and more. The said chatbots, however, performed badly and were deemed creepy and not useful, therefore making the company discontinue their development.
While the potential for creating engaging and personalized user experiences is a plausible business venture, Meta still has to negotiate with talent unions, address privacy and ethical concerns, and learn lessons from the previous failures of their competitors.
