Meta has announced Dame Judi Dench will be one of the voice options for its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
The renowned British actress is a ten-time BAFTA winner, known for her numerous and varied stage and screen roles, including one of her most iconic characters, James Bond’s boss, M.
Dench will be a voice option alongside fellow actors Awkwafina, John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key and Kristen Bell.
Now, instead of only messaging the chatbot using text, users can have real-time conversations and choose from a selection of computer-generated or celebrity voices.
This isn’t Meta’s first attempt at the use of celebrity chatbots. In September 2023, it debuted the voices of Kendall Jenner and Snoop Dogg but didn’t find success with it.
Now, the technology giant is trying again, with chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announcing the new offerings of celebrity voices, saying “I think that voice is going to be a way more natural way of interacting with AI than text”.
Earlier this year, Meta’s rival, ChatGPT stirred up controversy with an AI voice that sounded similar to the voice of Scarlett Johansson in the movie Her. At the time, Johansson released a statement saying she was “shocked” and “angered” considering she’d not given permission for Open AI to use her voice.
Unlike that debacle, Meta seems to have formed partnerships with the actors whose voices are being used in the chatbot tool. The company said it paid the actors an undisclosed sum for the rights to their voices for multiple years.
Meta has said their AI users now number more than 400 million people, with 185 million of them returning to Meta AI every week.
Alongside Meta’s chatbot, the company’s new offerings include being able to recognise things users photograph, and give them information about the images. An image editing feature will also allow users to alter photos by telling Meta AI the changes they want.
Zuckerberg also announced the first working prototype of Meta’s augmented-reality (AR) glasses, called Orion. The glasses allow users to interact with them through hand-tracking, voice and wrist-based interface.
Meta has seen its stock market value rise by more than 60 per cent since the start of the year.