Mark Zuckerberg creates AI version of himself to speak with Meta staff

Mark Zuckerberg has created a 3D AI avatar to offer conversation and feedback to employees. Photo / Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg has created an AI version of himself.

The Meta boss has helped create a 3D avatar that aims to offer “conversation and feedback” to employees, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Meta is increasingly focused on AI and has invested billions of dollars in data centres and top research talent to try to win the artificial intelligence arms race.

Zuckerberg is also said to be developing a chief executive AI agent to help him manage his workload.

The Meta boss is far from the first tech chief to develop an AI clone as Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi recently explained how some of his staff have created “Dara AI” to test their abilities.

He told the Diary of a CEO podcast: “They basically make the presentation to the Dara AI as a prep for making a presentation to me”.

However, the practice has been questioned by deepfake expert Henry Ajder, who feels that an AI chief executive “could be quite jarring to employees” as it would “feel like an inauthentic interaction”.

The United Kingdom Home Office adviser said: “I would be concerned about what impact that would have on company culture. And how people would feel interacting with some kind of avatar of their CEO in place of them, what weight that would carry and how does information which is shared with some kind of Avatar find its way back to the person?

“How is Zuckerberg thinking about how his reputation and his image is controlled by an avatar? Is this going to be bounded? How is it going to be aligned to what he thinks?”

Alexandru Voica – head of corporate affairs at AI video start-up Synthesia – feels that there is a difference between the “hype” of AI bosses and the reality.

He said: “This idea of replacing yourself with AI just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. If I’m a CEO and I want to give a business-critical update to my employees or my shareholders, how will that be perceived if I send an AI version of myself to do that, versus showing up in person taking the time to explain and deliver that message.”