Judi Dench, John Cena and other celebrities to voice Meta AI chatbot

Dame Judi Dench, John Cena and Awkwafina will all voice Meta AI – the artificial intelligence being rolled out by Instagram and Facebook owner Meta.

As part of an update to its Llama model, people will now be able to interact with Meta AI – the company’s ChatGPT-like chatbot – by speaking and getting responses from the celebrities.

Frozen’s Kristen Bell and comedian Keegan-Michael Key will also be options.

During Meta’s annual Connect conference, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg also showed off Orion, a set of smart glasses he described as “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen”.

As well as Orion, he showed off the updates to a pair of smart glasses Meta has developed with Ray-Ban, which will now be able to do live translation.

While wearing them, Mr Zuckerberg spoke in English to Mexican martial artist Brandon Moreno replying in Spanish – the conversation was translated in real time.

People can also dub their videos in another language so that it looks like they are speaking natively – even going so far as changing the movement of their lips to match.

“We are trying to build a future that is more open, more accessible, more natural, and more about human connection,” Mr Zuckerberg said.

“This is the continuation of the values and ideas that we have brought to the apps and technology that we have built over Meta’s first 20 years.”

An AI update aimed at influencers allows them to craft AI versions of themselves so they can interact with fans.

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Meta AI now has 500 million users, the company said.

Jeremy Goldman, of the research firm Emarketer, called the number “jaw-dropping”.

“Meta has transformed from just a social media company into an AI powerhouse,” he said.

“Mr Zuckerberg’s move to celebrity voices is not just for fun – it’s a direct challenge to OpenAI, with an emphasis on real-world utility.

“Meta is aggressively undercutting Apple’s Vision Pro to dominate the middle-tier AR/VR market.”

Those VR goggles, which came out earlier this year after much anticipation, cost $3,500 (£2,600).