Meta cancels celebrity AI chatbot project: What went wrong?
What's the story
Meta has decided to discontinue its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered celebrity chatbots, following a lack of public interest.
The chatbots, which were launched a year ago and featured AI avatars of celebrities like Tom Brady, Charli D'Amelio, MrBeast, and Paris Hilton, struggled to attract large followings despite the high-profile names involved.
This decision comes after Meta faced criticism for inaccurate statements made by its AI chatbot about an attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump.
Project termination
Meta's celebrity chatbot project faced public disapproval
Meta had reportedly paid an unnamed influencer $5 million for a two-year pilot program of the chatbots.
However, the public and social media users found these AI personas strange and unsettling, leading to a lukewarm response.
This reaction prompted Meta executives to terminate the project.
Previously, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had promoted this campaign by paying celebrities millions annually to license their image for a chatbot that would interact with users on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Follower disparity
Celebrity AI personas struggled to gain traction
Despite Zuckerberg's investment, even popular celebrities' AI personas failed to gain significant traction.
For example, Snoop Dogg's AI character "Dungeon Master" only managed 15,000 followers compared to his real-life Instagram account's 87.5 million followers.
Kendall Jenner's AI persona "Billie" was slightly more successful with 179,000 followers but still fell short of her real-life Instagram following of 194 million.
AI studio
Meta announces new tool for personalized AI chatbots
Despite the setback with celebrity chatbots, Meta has now announced plans to launch a new tool called AI Studio.
This tool will enable users to create personalized AI chatbots and allow Instagram creators to use these characters as an extension of themselves.
The tool will allow creators to use their AI persona to answer questions and engage in chats on their behalf.