Dame Judi Dench and John Cena will voice the Meta AI chatbot

Instagram owner Meta says Dame Judi Dench and John Cena will be voice options for its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.

Users will also be able to get information on the AI ​​versions of Awkwafina, Keegan-Michael Key or Kristen Bell.

Meta hopes this use of celebrity chatbots goes better than its last attempt.

In September 2023, he launched what he called AI chatbots with “personality”based on celebrities such as Kendall Jenner and Snoop Dogg, only to pull the plug less than a year later.

The tech giant’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his new foray into celebrity chatbots at the company’s annual Connect conference.

“I think voice will be a much more natural way to interact with AI than text,” he told attendees.

Other new offerings for the ChatGPT-style chatbot include the ability to recognize objects photographed by users and provide them with information about them.

An image editing feature will allow users to edit photos by telling Meta AI what changes they want.

The company said more than 400 million people now use Meta AI every month, and 185 million of them return to it every week.

Mr. Zuckerberg also revealed the first working prototype of Meta’s augmented reality (AR) glasses, called Orion.

Showing off the Orion glasses, Mr. Zuckerberg said: “A lot of people have said it’s the craziest technology they’ve ever seen. »

Users will be able to interact with Orion through a hand, voice and wrist-based tracking interface.

Meta also announced an entry-level version of its Quest range of mixed reality headsets, with prices for the new Quest 3S starting at $300 (£225).

Some of the world’s biggest tech companies have developed AR glasses, but have yet to launch commercially successful consumer devices.

In recent years, Meta has invested billions of dollars in the development of AI, AR and other metaverse technologies.

The company plans to spend up to $40 billion on new projects this year, a record.

Prior to the event, shares of Meta had ended Wednesday’s trading day at a record high of $568.31.

The company, which also owns social media platforms Facebook and WhatsApp, has seen its stock value rise more than 60% since the start of this year.

However, ahead of Meta’s annual presentation, thousands of Facebook and Instagram users, including many celebrities, shared a Stories post falsely claiming that people should repost it if they didn’t want the company to uses their content to train its AI tools.

James McAvoy and Tom Brady were among those who fell for the hoax.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed that users can only object to the use of their content by submitting an objection form.

This can be accessed by clicking on a notification sent to users about the plans, or by going to the Privacy Center under Account Settings.