Meta spins up AI version of Mark Zuckerberg to engage with employees

Meta is building an artificial intelligence version of Mark Zuckerberg that can engage with employees in his stead, as part of a broader push to remake the Big Tech company around AI. The $1.6 trillion group has been working on developing photorealistic, AI-powered 3D characters that users can interact with in real time, according to four people familiar with the matter. The company recently began prioritizing a Zuckerberg AI character, three of the people said. The Meta chief is personally involved in training and testing his animated AI, which could offer conversation and feedback to employees, according to one person. They added that the character was being trained on the billionaire’s mannerisms, tone, and publicly available statements, as well as his own recent thinking on company strategies, so that employees might feel more connected to the founder through interactions with it. The effort, which is at an early stage, is separate from Zuckerberg’s project to build a “CEO agent” to support him in his role, for example by retrieving information quickly. That idea was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Zuckerberg has gone on a multibillion-dollar spending spree over the past year, promising to develop “personal superintelligence” and catch up with rivals such as OpenAI and Google in building cutting-edge models. On Wednesday, Meta released Muse Spark, a small, closed “purpose-built” model for use across its products, with advanced capabilities in areas such as health reasoning and visual understanding. Wall Street investors welcomed the release, with Meta’s shares rising 7 percent on the day. Zuckerberg has become increasingly hands-on as he oversees Meta’s AI push, according to people familiar with the matter. He has spent five to 10 hours a week coding on different AI projects at the company and sitting in on technical reviews, said one person.