Meta's AI assistant, Meta AI, is getting a form of recent voice mode.
At the Meta Connect 2024 developer conference in Menlo Park on Wednesday morning, Meta announced that Meta AI can now answer questions out loud on all of the platforms it's available on: Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Facebook. You can pick from several voices, including the AI ​​clones of celebrities that Meta has hired for the aim: Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key and Kristen Bell.
Meta AI's recent speech feature isn't like OpenAI's enhanced speech mode for ChatGPT, which is extremely expressive and may detect emotional tones in an individual's voice. Rather, it's just like Google's recently introduced Gemini Live, which transcribes speech before an AI responds to it and reads the response out loud in an artificial voice.
Meta believes the high-caliber talent will make a difference. According to the Wall Street Journal: It paid tens of millions for using celebrity likenesses. While we're skeptical, we'll reserve judgment until we try it ourselves.
In other Meta AI updates, the assistant can now analyze images, due to an upgrade to the underlying AI models that power the experience. In regions where it's supported, for instance, you’ll be able to share an image of a flower you see and ask Meta AI what kind it’s. Or you’ll be able to upload a photograph of a dish and ask for instructions on how you can prepare it. (Keep in mind that you simply'll occasionally get unsuitable answers.)
Meta also says it’s testing a Meta AI translation tool to mechanically translate voices in Instagram Reels. The tool syncs a creator's speech and mechanically lip syncs it, simulating the voice in one other language and ensuring the lip movements match.
Meta says it's starting with “small tests” of Reels translations on Instagram and Facebook, initially just with some Latin American creators' videos within the U.S. in English and Spanish.
