Metawith more than 60 offices, nearly 80,000 employees, there may soon be two Mark Zuckerbergs: one human and one digital. The company is reported to developing an AI-powered version of its CEO that can interact with staff when the real Zuckerberg isn’t available, according to the Financial Times. The avatar will be trained on Zuckerberg’s images, voice and mannerisms, people familiar with the project told the FT. The effort matches Zuckerberg’s aggressive push into all things AIas he continues bet big on technology reshaping Meta’s future.
Meta did not respond to requests for comment from the Observer.
Zuckerberg, 41, has emerged as one of the most aggressive AI spenders. Meta expects to pour between 115 and 135 billion dollars AI related infrastructure only in 2026. The company has also spent money to recruit top talent to its AI division, the newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), through amazing offers that include $100 million signing bonus.
MSL, supervised by ex Scales of AI CEO, Alexander Wanglaunched its first major product earlier this month: Muse Spark, a large language model designed to compete with other frontier AI systems. More models in the Muse series are scheduled to hit the market later this year.
But Meta’s ambitions go beyond developing language models. The company is also building photorealistic 3D avatars capable of conversing with users, with Zuckerberg’s clone serving as the first test case for employee feedback. If successful, the project could be expanded to allow influencers and creators to produce versions of their own AI.
Zuckerberg isn’t the only executive experimenting with self-replication through AI Klarna CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski has used its own version of AI to deliver quarterly earningsWHEREAS Larger HEAD Eric Yuan THERE discussed training digital “clones” to attend meetings. Even hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio has a digital avatar sharing his principles of investing online.
Beyond the employee-facing avatar, Zuckerberg is said to be developing another system: an AI CEO agent that can help him with everyday executive tasks, such as quickly retrieving information, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Meta has long been interested in blending AI with personality. In 2023, it launched chatbots modeled after celebrities like Snoop Dogg AND Naomi Osaka. But the company later faced criticism over the feature’s impact on teenagers’ mental health and restricted underage users from accessing it earlier this year.
Avatars have been central to Zuckerberg’s vision before. They were a defining feature of his metaverse push, which petered out after his 2022 VR avatar drew widespread derision for its poor quality graphics. The meta has since shifted its focus from the metaverse to a pivot so comprehensive that it now defines the company’s new identity around AI.
If all goes according to plan, Zuckerberg’s next digital self may finally have a longer lifespan than his last.
