Meta Platforms Inc. is looking to offer many Hollywood actors and celebrities millions of dollars for the right to use their voices for its AI projects. The company serves as the owner of globally prominent social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook. It aims to close these deals as fast as possible to cultivate an intriguing collection of AI tools for its upcoming Connect event, scheduled to take place in September 2024.
According to several reports, the company has talked about this scenario with numerous celebrities, including Awkwafina, Keegan-Michael Key, and Judi Dench. These celebrities reportedly asked not to be identified given the project’s confidential and sensitive nature. No official response has been provided by Meta so far regarding this matter.
While it’s unclear how Meta plans to use the voices, many believe that the company could utilise their voices for a chatbot that would function as a digital assistant, like Apple’s Siri. This will allow the users to speak with these chatbots for help.
However, Meta is facing difficulties in securing the rights as the parties can’t agree on terms for the usage of the actors’ voices. The company wants to secure rights to voices for not just chatbots but for other AI-based projects as well for a fixed term. This has forced the actors’ representatives to demand stricter limits.
The utilisation of AI tools has gained immense notoriety in the last 2-3 years in the Hollywood creative community as the latter fear losing their respective jobs as a direct result of the revolutionary but disruptive technology. The SAG-AFTRA also conducted a large-scale strike last year to seek protections against the usage of AI. Although, the union later reached an agreement with Meta on terms, according to many reports. Stay tuned for more updates.