These Celebrities Loaned Their Voices to Meta AI’s New Speech Feature

Meta AI can now “see” and speak to you thanks to new AI upgrades, the tech giant announced Wednesday. The company’s annual AR/VR event, Meta Connect 2024, also introduced the new Meta Quest S3, Meta Ray Bans and Orion AR glasses, and like every other tech event this year, included a hefty dose of AI.

The new voice feature gives the AI assistant a voice so that you can ask it questions aloud and it will answer you in kind — no need to type if you don’t want to. Meta added some star power to the feature, which means you can choose to have Meta AI answer you in a variety of celebrity voices, including Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan Michael Key and Kristen Bell. OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched a similar feature — advanced audio mode — one day before Meta’s announcement.

Meta AI is also getting new photo recognition and editing abilities, which is the “see” part of the news. Now when you upload a photo to Meta AI, it will be better at recognizing and identifying elements in the photos. Meta also said you can use its AI assistant to help edit photos, including removing background elements, adding new elements and changing the background.

You’ll be able to use Meta AI’s new features on its social platforms: Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger. Meta said that the new voice feature is beginning to roll out this week in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. If you can’t access the features yet, don’t panic; the rollout will continue for the next month.

Watch this: My First Dive Into Meta’s Orion AR Glasses And Neural Wristband

05:46

Instagram is also getting some AI attention. Meta showed off how it is improving video dubbing and lip syncing for Instagram Reels. Automatic dubbing will be available starting in English and Spanish, and Meta hopes it will help make more Reels accessible for people by meeting them in their preferred language.

Meta also said it’s starting to test out integrating recommended, AI-generated images into Instagram and Facebook feeds based on each user’s interests. Meta currently adds a label to AI-generated content and it looks like imagined content for you will be getting a similar label.