Meta Offers Millions to Awkwafina, Judi Dench, Keegan-Michael Key to Use Their Voices for AI

Facebook parent company Meta is in talks with name talent including Judi Dench, Awkwafina, Keegan-Michael Key and others to use their voices for the company’s MetaAI assistant, according to media reports citing anonymous sources. The actors are being offered millions of dollars for the use of their voices.

Meta has been in stop-and-start negotiations with talent representatives because there have been disagreements on how the actors’ voices will be used. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.

All of Hollywood’s top talent agencies have been involved in negotiations with Meta, according to the New York Times. While Meta seeks the use of their voices for multiple uses over a set term on a particular project, the talent’s reps want stricter limitations around how they’re used. Meta’s contract proposal included using the voices across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and augmented reality glasses, the Times reports.

It’s unknown how their voices will specifically be incorporated, Meta has made known its aims to build out its digital assistant feature to create something that could compete with Siri and the voice assistant functions of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. That ChatGPT function notably ran into controversy earlier this year when one of its voices was seen as too close to that of Scarlett Johansson, leading to the voice being pulled as the nascent industry works out how soundalikes will be handled. Meta aims to make deals that avoid angering top talent, according to the Times.

As multiple companies experiment in the AI space with virtual friends, sources tell Bloomberg and the Times that the voices could also be used to serve as those virtual friends. Meta has already experimented on text-based chatbots based on the personas of stars including Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady, MrBeast, Paris Hilton, Dwayne Wade and others, but they ended that experiment after lackluster response from users.

Sources told Bloomberg that SAG-AFTRA has agreed with Meta on terms for the use of the celebrity voices in their products. While actors achieved some protections from AI in recent labor contracts, it was a sticking point in last year’s double strikes with the writers’ and actors’ unions and many expressed deep concern with how limited the protections included in those contracts ended up being. Meta is continuing to work to build more products that feature artificial intelligence, including an AI studio that lets content creators make chatbots of themselves. The Times notes that Meta wants to be able to lock down deals in time for its late September Connect tech conference. The project may also look to sign influencers, not just actors.

The machine learning tech has continued to be controversial in the entertainment, particularly among labor, who worry that it will be used to replace human talent including not just actors but potentially screenwriters, editors, animators and others. Voice actors appear to be among those who could be most vulnerable to replacement by AI.

During its earnings call earlier this week, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company would spend at least $37 billion this year on AI — an increase from a previously announced $30 billion at the beginning of the year.

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