Meta, which has more than 60 offices and nearly 80,000 employees, may soon have two Zuckerbergs: one human and one digital. It is said that the company Developing an AI-powered version of its CEO He can interact with employees when the real Zuckerberg is unavailable, according to the Financial Times. The avatar will be trained on Zuckerberg’s images, voice and mannerisms, people familiar with the project told the Financial Times. This effort aligns with Zuckerberg’s strong push toward all things AI, as he continues to bet big on technology that is reshaping the future of meta.
Meta did not respond to requests for comment from the Observer.
Zuckerberg, 41, has emerged as one of the biggest spenders on artificial intelligence. Meta expects to pump between $115 billion to $135 billion AI-related infrastructure in 2026 alone. The company has also spent money recruiting top talent for its AI division, the newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), with eye-catching offers that include a $100 million signing bonus.
MSL, overseen by former Scale AI CEO Alexander Wang, launched its first major product earlier this month: Muse Spark, a large language model designed to compete with other frontier AI systems. More models in the ‘Muse’ series are scheduled to be launched later this year.
But Meta’s ambitions go beyond developing language models. The company is also building realistic 3D avatars capable of talking to users, with Zuckerberg’s version serving as the first test case for employee feedback. If the project is successful, it could expand to allow influential and creative people to produce AI versions of themselves.
Zuckerberg isn’t the only CEO experimenting with self-replication through artificial intelligence. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkovsky used an AI version of himself to drive quarterly profits, while Zoom chief Eric Yuan Discuss the training of digital “copies” of meeting attendees. Even hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio has a digital avatar sharing his investing principles online.
Aside from the employee-facing avatar, Zuckerberg is said to be developing another system: Deputy CEO of Amnesty International It can help him with everyday executive tasks like retrieving information quickly, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Meta has always been interested in blending artificial intelligence with personality. In 2023, it launched chatbots modeled after celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Naomi Osaka. But the company later faced criticism over the feature’s impact on teens’ mental health and restricted underage users from accessing it earlier this year.
Avatars have been central to Zuckerberg’s vision before. It was a hallmark of his metaverse push, which fizzled out after the 2022 virtual reality avatar drew widespread ridicule for its poor-quality graphics. Meta has since shifted its focus away from the Metaverse in a pivot so comprehensive that it now defines its new corporate identity around AI
If all goes according to plan, Zuckerberg’s next digital persona may finally have a longer lifespan than his previous one.
