Zuckerberg Didn't Think He Was Robotic Enough So Now He's Using AI

What’s happening

It has been reported that Meta is training an AI character modeled on Mark Zuckerberg — his image, voice, mannerisms, tone and even his views on strategy — so employees can interact with a digital founder, according to the Financial Times. The company is also working on 3D avatars that would chat in real time, a push meant to help Meta catch up with rivals like Google and OpenAI. But scaling those avatars is painfully expensive; the FT says the tech needs massive compute to feel believable, and Meta is still wrestling with that.

Déjà vu: the metaverse returns

This sounds faintly familiar. Remember the metaverse bet? Meta renamed itself in 2021 and poured billions into VR worlds that never quite landed. Horizon Worlds limped along. The CEO-avatar idea smacks of the same impulse: double down on immersive fantasies, even when the market hasn’t shown up. And yes — put aside the corporate spin for a second — there’s a real, stomach-dropping creep factor to a company making a virtual CEO to monitor or mentor staff. Do we really want a chatbot of the boss in our meetings? Feels like a Black Mirror episode you can’t skip.

Why it matters

If the Zuckerberg character works, influencers and creators could imitate it; corporate avatars could become a new product line. That raises predictable questions about jobs, data-center electricity, and digital safety — not to mention who controls the “truth” when an AI speaks for a person. The line between efficiency and surveillance blurs fast. The company says this is about connection; skeptics say it’s another big bet with real costs. Either way, the experiment is underway — and the stakes are more than cosmetic.

Sources: motherjones.com, Hacker News