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Meta scraps failed celebrity AI chatbots after users ignored them, deemed them creepy

By
Ariel Zilber
Published Aug. 1, 2024, 12:00 p.m. ET

Meta scrapped its artificial intelligence-powered celebrity chatbots — featuring images of A-listers and social media influencers like Tom Brady, Charli D’Amelio, MrBeast, and Paris Hilton — after the tool failed to generate interest in the year since it was launched.

The tech giant — which came under fire this week after its AI-trained software spit out inaccurate statements about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump — reportedly had paid one unnamed influencer $5 million for what was supposed to be a two-year pilot program.

But the underwhelming response from the public, including social media users who found the alternative personas weird and creepy, convinced Meta executives to pull the plug on the project, according to The Information.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had touted the campaign last year, reportedly paying celebrities millions of dollars a year to license their image for a chatbot that would interact with users on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meta is ending its AI celebrity chatbot program after it failed to catch on among social media users.
Meta is ending its AI celebrity chatbot program after it failed to catch on among social media users. Meta
Snoop Dogg inspired a character known as "Dungeon Master" which used the rapper's likeness.
Snoop Dogg inspired a character known as “Dungeon Master” which used the rapper’s likeness. Meta

Despite the online popularity of the celebrities, their AI chatbots struggled to attract large followings.

Snoop Dogg’s AI character, “Dungeon Master,” managed just 15,000 followers while the rapper’s real-life Instagram account has 87.5 million followers.

Kendall Jenner’s AI persona, “Billie,” managed to amass a following of 179,000, which was the most of the 28 AI characters, but still well short of the influencer’s whopping 194 million followers on Instagram.

As of Tuesday, links to these celebrity chatbot accounts on Facebook and Instagram returned messages indicating the pages were no longer available.

Meta confirmed the removal of the chatbots.

A spokesperson told The Information: “We gained a lot of insights from creating the chatbots and Meta AI about how people use AIs to connect and create uniquely.”

Tom Brady was among the creators paid by Meta to license his image and create an AI persona.
Tom Brady was among the creators paid by Meta to license his image and create an AI persona. Meta

Earlier this week, Meta said it will launch a new tool called AI Studio that will allow users to create, share and design personalized AI chatbots.

The AI Studio will allow users to create customized AI characters and also allow Instagram creators to use the AI characters “as an extension of themselves” that can handle common DM questions and story replies, Meta said.

Users can share their AI characters on the social media giant’s various platforms.

Kendall Jenner was also among the creators used by Meta.
Kendall Jenner was also among the creators used by Meta. Instagram/yoursisbillie

The new tool is built with Meta’s Llama 3.1, the biggest version of its mostly free artificial intelligence models released last week, which is available in multiple languages and has performance metrics that compete with paid models from rivals like OpenAI.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI is working on a project code-named “Strawberry,” the details of which are tightly kept secret even within OpenAI, as the startup races to show that the types of models it offers are capable of delivering advanced reasoning capabilities, Reuters exclusively reported earlier in July.