Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a suite of AI-based chatbots, including one that portrays rapper Snoop Dogg as a role-playing game Dungeon Master, during the Meta Connect 2023 Keynote on September 27. Each of Metaâs 28 new bots (which are not yet available to the public) is a curated character represented by a celebrity, like tennis star Naomi Osaka, who represents an anime superfan, or Mr. Beast, who acts as âthe big brother here for the jokes the banter and not the feels,â a reveal trailerindicates.
The Verge reports that Metaâs core chatbot assistant, Meta AI, is trained on a âcustom-madeâ language model grounded in Llama 2, Metaâs reaction to OpenAI model ChatGPT. Zuckerberg said that, unlike Meta AI, the characters âdonât, for the most part, have access to real-time information yetâ but didnât specify what they were trained on; Kotaku requested comment.
It doesnât seem like the bots take on the conversation patterns of the celebrities they resemble, the way musician Grimesâ Twitter bot, which is trained on her real Twitter, mimics her. The actors, âa bunch of pretty awesome people,â Zuckerberg said, ranging from basketball legend Dwyane Wade to 19-year-old TikToker Charli DâAmelio, seem to only be involved for visual flair.
Zuckerberg pulled up his Snoop Dogg bot for a live demo, telling it that he wanted to âforge aheadâ in the medieval narrative it created.
âYou gather your weapons and armor, ready to face whatever dangers lie ahead,â the bot replied while an image of Snoop Dogg nodded a bit incongruously in the top right corner. âThe villagers bid you farewell, wishing you luck on your quest.â
âI mean, who hasnât wanted to play a text adventure game with Snoop Dogg?â Zuckerberg wondered, placing emphasis on the âDogg,â while the bot spun a generic questline involving a âmysterious elven rogueâ and âwise cleric.â
To take you deeper into the uncanny valley, Meta will add voice to its characters âprobably early next year,â Zuckerberg said, promising that these characters arenât âjust gonna be about answering queries,â but âabout entertainment, and about helping you do things to connect with the people around you, and helping you accomplish the things that you want across whatever your different goals are.â And if one of your goals is to generate a lifeless, single-player RPG while a rapper stares at you like heâs falling asleep, then this is a great day.