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Zuckerberg To Build Personal AI For Help At Home and Work (facebook.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the jarvis-where-are-my-pants dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he is planning on building his own personal assistant AI, recreating a system similar to that of the Jarvis butler featured in Marvel's Iron Man franchise. Zuckerberg commented that as a personal challenge for 2016, he would construct a "simple AI" to assist him at home and at work, and share his progress the course of the year. The Facebook founder said he build on existing technology to develop his AI, before teaching it to understand his voice to be able to control home appliances, such as a music system, lighting, and air conditioning.

56 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Jarvis or Siri? by Fusen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is quite a large jump between saying "I'm going to build my own AI like Jarvis from Iron Man" and then saying "I'll use this AI to help me turn on the lights or listen to music".

    Is it going to be a glorified Amazon Echo / Apple Siri or will it actually be able to predict what you're doing and what you need help with?

    1. Re: Jarvis or Siri? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Totally. Another intentionally misleading headline about the king of spoiled brats. Yawn. The day Zuckerberg develops something useful is the day . . . Lol! Who are we kidding? That'll never happen with this ape. ;)

    2. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by tshawkins · · Score: 3, Interesting

      http://jasperproject.github.io...

      Raspberry pi and a microphone.

    3. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      Why not just get a human butler.
      Sure a butler is a luxury that the common man cannot afford, but for someone like him, who has so many people already on payroll, is it really that bad of an idea to have your own butler, to manage your home, and take care of things, so you as CEO can focus more on work, or what little free time you have with your family.

      As a CEO, he may not be smart of effective, or a good person, but every CEO I have met are very busy people, to have a glitchy assistant is a waste of his time. And it better off hiring staff to manage his estate.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    4. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by randomErr · · Score: 1

      He's just going build a Chibi-Robo.

      --
      You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
    5. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Most likely he's going to have a cookie made and then Jon Hamm will put it in solitary until it submits. So at least one version of Zuckerberg will get what it deserves.

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
    6. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      Aside from its puff-piece value(here we are talking about it, despite the fact that academics and DARPA have been puttering around with speech recognition since the 70s if not earlier, and a number of companies-that-aren't-facebook are already aggressively attempting to give away voice-assistant products in order to score that juicy data, and facebook has nothing except its CEO's new year's resolution...) it may also be a matter of cultural fit.

      I'd be pretty surprised if he does his own housecleaning, when their are contractors for that; but having 'the help' actually embedded in your home is a bit weird and intrusive unless they are amazingly skilled at being deferential and you are somewhat used to the idea(all the subtle joy of walking back into your hotel room and noticing that the cleaners moved things around a bit while you were out, except all the time and at home). There's also the probable level of trust that someone who appears to dislike intrusions on his own privacy and built a fortune by intruding on that of others would have for comparatively low-paid lackeys with privileged physical access to his house.

      Some dodgy speech-to-text system bolted onto a pile of scripts is certainly going to do a vastly worse job than a human would; but it won't be nearly as noticeable or likely to sell pictures of you snorting lines off your iphone to the tabloids.

    7. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      Chi?

    8. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      having 'the help' actually embedded in your home is a bit weird and intrusive unless they are amazingly skilled at being deferential and you are somewhat used to the idea

      It's called "having a household staff" and historically has been the standard for those rich enough to have servants.

    9. Re: Jarvis or Siri? by Ravaldy · · Score: 1

      If I could have built something as simple as facebook I too would have sold it to help me fund my ideas (which I cannot be turned to profit so quickly),

    10. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by nine-times · · Score: 1

      Sure, but... are any of us actually confused by the statement that he's building something comparable to "Jarvis" from Iron Man? When I read that, I assume that means he's basically trying to make a Siri-like "AI" that can be a little more helpful.

      I've put a fair amount of thought into this in the past, and it seems to me there are various things a Siri-alike could do, if hooked up and programmed to do it. For example, based on travel patterns, it could note that you almost always go home after work at around 6:30pm. Through the GPS in your device, it could tell when you're close to home, and automatically set a series of conditions for your arrival-- including things like lighting level, music, temperature control, etc. There are a bunch of things like this that require coordinating across devices, which I don't think Siri/Echo really do yet.

      Another thing that doesn't seem like it would be too hard to do would be to make it more proactive. Theoretically let's say it has an appointment in your calendar that's 2 hours away. It has access to traffic information for the travel from one location to another, and sees that there's a half hour delay. So about 2.5 hours before the appointment, it automatically gives you a heads-up. "You'd better leave now, or you're going to be late." Or maybe it could monitor your washing machine and say, "You left some clothes in the washer a couple of days ago. You should probably move them to the dryer to avoid getting moldy and gross." These would have to be designed very carefully to make them useful instead of being annoying.

      It could also possibly do things for you. Like say, "Hey, your mother's birthday is coming up in 2 weeks, and you usually order her flowers. Would you like me to order her the same bouquet as last year?" There are various possible problems with this, from having bug cause the AI to spend more money than intended, to the social aspects of having some of these things done automatically.

      So what I'm getting at here is that there's a lot of stuff that these "AI" systems could potentially do, but we don't have them do because there are loads of potential problems, and it needs to be tested first. In some ways, I think it makes sense to start by having a rich tech guy pay for his own prototype, and figure out what he finds useful vs. annoying. It seems like a reasonable way to work out some of the kinks before you even get to normal testing.

    11. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Beaten, I was just going to say that Jarvis - (personality+prediction) = PocketSphinx + Jasper + Hubot.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    12. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by chihowa · · Score: 2

      He didn't claim that such a thing didn't exist. He claimed that it is "a bit weird and intrusive". That, historically, others have been able to treat this as a standard and not find it intrusive only attests to the power of lifelong acclimatization and the dehumanization inherent in caste systems.

      --
      If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
    13. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by ottothecow · · Score: 1
      Google already does half of these things if you have an Android phone with Google Now.

      It's not perfect...for instance, while I don't own a car, it often alerts me to traffic conditions that would slow my commute (but don't impact my train)... It works pretty well, but considering whenever I ask for directions, I ask for either Public Transit or Cycling, you would think it would stop giving me traffic alerts.

      Or it will scan my email, notice that I replied to an email that appeared to be a party invite, and then notify me "You had better leave now to make it to this event by 8pm". Oddly, here it often gives me public transit directions instead of car.

      It has some synchronization with your computer if you use Chrome, although it isn't complete.

      --
      Bottles.
    14. Re: Jarvis or Siri? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      The story kind of brings to mind this guy, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...., the moron who gifted hundreds of millions of us with lead poisoning to varying degrees. Who created "an elaborate system of strings and pulleys to help others lift him from bed", which promptly strangled him to death. You could just imagine the story where Zuckerberg is smothered to death by his AI when it tries to make his bed with him still in it. A new meme, amusing ways for the Zuckerberg AI to kill Zuckerberg.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    15. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      It is a historical norm; but one that has substantially declined in recent western history. I'm not sure exactly how much of the slack has been taken up by the increase in short term, impersonal, contractual work(you don't have a groundskeeper; but LawnCorp LLC. will send a work crew over twice a month if you pay them to), how much has been absorbed by technological change(the pool of people who actually dictate word-for-word to secretaries is not doing well vs. people who just type because it's faster than talking, even if they have secretaries for tasks that are easier to delegate in big chunks), and how much reflects the fact that abundance in mass-produced goods and services has expanded the pool of 'comfortable/middle class' faster than the supply of poor-people-you-would-want-in-your-house has grown, making servants more expensive in comparison to other markers of wealth.

      Obviously Zuckerberg could now afford to have a hand-picked troupe of novelty midgets on hand to tongue wash his car on demand if he felt like it; but he isn't old money, or even middle-aged new money(for a few more years), so odds are good that he grew up with a limited acclimatization to dedicated domestic servants and he has had a limited amount of time to get used to the idea outside of a workplace-only context.

      I assume that he quite happily contracts out a lot of what would historically have been domestic chores and I'd be far from surprised if an au pair from some country with a language he wants his spawn to enjoy the cognitive benefits of shows up in the relatively near future; but the slice of society actually accustomed to the idea of having a butler and a scullery maid embedded in their house has shrunk pretty dramatically in the last century or two; and requires an atypically retro or very wealthy acclimatization to be fully comfortable with. This doesn't mean a bold spirit of egalitarianism; dubiously legal Mexicans to cut the lawn for less and fawning attention from the local hirelings on Caribbean package vacations are much more broadly accepted; but somebody poor enough that you can afford having near family-level access to your private life is not nearly the institution it once was.

    16. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      what I believe he is doing is building a system based on OS/2 Warp.

      I mean come on, teach the voice recognition and interface it after that with trivial systems like playing music or switching io pins on/off is basically straight out of a OS/2 advertisement.

      furthermore, unless he has something more ambitious in mind he could just have bought these systems for the past 20+ years.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    17. Re:Jarvis or Siri? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I don't even have 1/100th of his assets and I have a house cleaner. In fact, I flew her and her husband down to Florida over the holidays and they're going to stay here for a while - as in living in the house with me. Really though, I still do quite a bit of the cleaning and whatnot on my own but she mostly comes in and checks on me, makes a few meals a week, and makes sure I remember to eat and do normal stuff like get to appointments. She picks up my groceries and does that sort of shopping stuff for me because, well, I'm not really that good at some of that stuff. I actually sometimes forget to eat if I'm not reminded. I just get busy doing something and time seems to pass.

      I think you're on to something. It's a bit unnerving to go pick something up, and you know you left it there, and it's gone. I lived alone for a while and now I have a girlfriend and it's strange to have things moved from where they once were. The missus says its eerie but she's never actually had a house cleaner or anything like that before - but I still find it odd.

      In fact, back home there are two rooms that I don't like to have cleaned. One is my "office" which is more a shop and the other isn't really a room so much as it is a collection of them in my basement. I have a server room, utility closet, and a separate room (concrete and a steel door) that remains locked pretty much all the time. She doesn't clean any of those rooms but there's a pantry down there that gets cleaned.

      Oh, heh... That reads a little odd but the room with the steel door is where I store my moderate collection of firearms. It's not like I don't trust her with them or anything, it's that I prefer to keep it locked and am ultimately responsible for the contents of that room. It's not like it is a concrete room full of various dungeon equipment and a gimp suit, it's not full of Lithuanian boys, and there are no secret doors that lead to a doomsday device. I'm just not that creative or interesting.

      If I could have all those things done by an AI and a robot? I think I might prefer that though, at the same time, when I lived alone that was often the only human interaction that I'd have, in person, for some rather long periods of time.

      But you're right - it's really unnerving to have stuff out of place when you know where you put it. It actually reaches the point where, if you're not really familiar with it, you're kind of a stranger in your own kitchen - buggered if I know how to work the dishwasher or where the peanut butter is. I don't really know how to describe it but it does take some time to acclimate. The girlfriend is still trying to adjust and has commented on it several times so it's odd that you bring it up.

      That said, over this past weekend I had a few people who frequent this site stop over and celebrate the ringing in of the new year with us. (I'll let them identify themselves or not.) I'd like to think that they'd have not even noticed that I have a house keeper. She's not staff. She's a friend. I just happen to pay her because she does things to help me out.

      It's a little different than the room keeping service at a hotel. They're in and out. A house keeper is there for multiple hours per day, doing your laundry, cooking your food, and maybe even answering your phone. In my case, she comes and goes as she wants - she gets paid for a full 40 hours even if she only works 20. She knows me well enough that we've kind of figured it out. I don't know how Zukerberg is but she's not just someone who works for me - she's a real friend who needed a job and something to do.

      Also, I'm not important enough for her to care if I'm doing lines off an iPhone. She would cluck in disapproval but she'd keep it in the strictest of confidence. Her husband, on the other hand, might actually partake but I don't think anyone would swear to it in a court of law.

      At any rate, you're not just right - you're uncannily right in those regards. It's oddly topical considering I was just having this same discussion either earlier today or late last night with the missus.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    18. Re: Jarvis or Siri? by Gliscameria · · Score: 1

      It's simple, we just power the spaceship with Facebook likes! Just like how we cured cancer.

      --
      X
  2. Starving for attention... by denzacar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...a sociopath decides to compare himself to a comicbook hero, who is also portrayed as a sociopath.
    Lacking actual comparison points he decides to pretend to create artificial intelligence.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    1. Re:Starving for attention... by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      With a young child in the formative years, it's a crying shame that he absolve himself as a "father" and hands that task off to a robot. WTF?!

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    2. Re:Starving for attention... by chihowa · · Score: 1

      If a comic book inspires him to actually create AI, (almost) nobody will be slinging poo.
      Instead, a comic book has inspired him to publicly claim that he'll create AI, which is really pretty lame.

      --
      If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
  3. No big deal by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2, Funny

    Its just a fleshlight with a vibrator attached.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  4. Apologies to Ian Malcolm by RealGene · · Score: 1

    Asshole builds AI. AI is an Asshole. Nature abhors a vacuum, so fills it with Asshole AIs.

    --
    Mission: To provide products that consume time and energy as entertainingly as permitted by the laws of thermodynamics.
    1. Re:Apologies to Ian Malcolm by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

      Asshole builds AI. AI is an Asshole. Nature abhors a vacuum, so fills it with Asshole AIs.

      Hey, Asshole is an excellent name for an AI. Especially one that is implanted in your brain.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    2. Re:Apologies to Ian Malcolm by wtfamidoinghere · · Score: 1

      Very nice... Old man :D

  5. AI says fire these people and by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    AI says fire these people ( I can do there work) and take the saving put them in X and pay no tax.

  6. the difference between Jarvis & Zuckerbot... by Yonder+Way · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...is that Zuckerberg is no Tony Stark. He had one good idea, and the right opportunity. Stark, though fictional, was an exceptional genius that had more brilliant ideas than time in which to realize them.

  7. Isn't he just a shitty PHP coder? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Since when is Zuckerberg a computer scientist?

    1. Re:Isn't he just a shitty PHP coder? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      You don't have to be a computer scientist to fiddle with AI as a hobby.

      For example, I'm not a computer scientist nor a (formal) music expert, but have built music composing software as a hobby with "web" languages of Php's kin, by studying and experimenting with chord and melody patterns. It's largely a matter of experimenting and tuning based on feedback of those experiments.

      Any "formal" scientist will probably have to do similar fiddle-change-fiddle cycles (although may use more theory up front). The difference is I don't have to stop to document anything and won't get fired if I produce nothing of value since it's not my day job. I have freedom to fail.

      I don't expect to win any awards or accolades; I just fiddle for the fun of fiddling. If somebody else enjoys my works, which I sometimes put online, that's even better, but not prerequisite.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  8. Bollox by vikingpower · · Score: 2

    What Zuckerberg wants is a glorified piece of deterministic software. Not an AI. Just plain media-whoring.

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    1. Re:Bollox by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      It's far simpler; he will build a front-end to FaceBook and have the "community" control his home and answer his questions. This will be fun!!!

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    2. Re:Bollox by vikingpower · · Score: 1

      Funny. I have a hard time combining the words "Zuckerberg", "Facebook" and "fun" in one phrase that does not contain the words "not", "no" or "none".

      --
      Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    3. Re:Bollox by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Yes, but the collective conscious will of FB users will be keeping the lights on in his house. How will he ever get to sleep?!

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  9. Your AI and my AI by seven+of+five · · Score: 1

    With the impending proliferation of different AIs competing for the average Joe's attention, will they cooperate or will it turn into a mad mess of corporate games? Will Siri ignore Cortana? Will your refrigerator's AI turn a deaf ear to the toaster's?

  10. Scattergories by Mishra100 · · Score: 1

    In Scattergories, if I ever see a topic called "Things Rich People Do"

    I'm totally putting "Build a personal robot butler like Jarvis" down.

  11. Which code editor does he prefer? by flacco · · Score: 1

    Zuckerberg isn't going to build shit.

    --
    pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
    1. Re:Which code editor does he prefer? by messymerry · · Score: 1

      Beg to differ. Zucks has all the time in the world because his .gov handlers are running the company for him while he sits in the corner and plays with his expensive toys...

      --
      Dear Microlimp: I give you 2 valid product keys for win7 and you reject both of them. Piss off you wankers!!!
  12. Zuckerberg != Tony Stark by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 2

    Somebody should tell Zuckerberg that if he wants to channel Tony Stark, then he really needs to come up with an ARC reactor and some powered armor. Without them, he's just another douchey asshole*, whether he has JARVIS at home or not.

    *As a point of fact, Stan Lee made Stark a raging asshole quite intentionally. It was a challenge to himself as to whether he could get readers to like the character nonetheless.

    --
    Imagine all the people...
  13. Re:Been there...ugh by RicktheBrick · · Score: 1

    Every thing that requires electricity should have a chip that communicates with the circuit breakers. Every receptacle would have only a very small amount of current until something was plugged into it. Once that happens communications would occur telling the circuit breaker how much current was needed. Only than would a large amount of current be available. Every electrical receptacle would have its own address and be controlled by a computer. The computer than would be able to determine if for instance "Is this window in sunlight and Is there need for heat in the room". When both of these questions are answered than the computer would know to either close or open the blinds or turn on a fan. When it is cold outside why do I need electricity to keep my refrigerator cool when all I should need to do is to get some of the outside air into it? There should be an easy programming language to control all of our devices.

  14. Re:Already a Documentary by GTRacer · · Score: 1

    I literally watched Ex Machina yesterday! I really liked it, and the way Nathan was portrayed. Gods with feet of clay, and so on. Nice, thinky film...

    --
    Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
  15. Re: Been there...ugh by MasterOfGoingFaster · · Score: 2

    The existing electrical system has zero current flowing, then flows the required amount when you plug in an appliance and turn it on. No computer or chips needed.

    --
    Place nail here >+
  16. Zuck's raping lady Liberty... by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    Granted, Ironman did kill Cap, so the metaphor still sort of fits.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  17. Re:Of course by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

    Don't compare Zuckerberg with Elon Musk. At least Elon Musk is doing something good with his money.

    Zuckerberg only piles up information about everyone, just like Google.

  18. Re:the difference between Jarvis & Zuckerbot.. by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    I know Zuckerberg started Facebook - but does he have any actual coding skills? Since this is a "personal challenge" I assume he means he intends to write it rather than pay other people to do so.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  19. Taking Facebook to the Next Exploitative Level by MarkvW · · Score: 1

    You are going to be training Zuckerberg's AI. You're going to be programming that AI by giving it the guts of who you are.

    Far out.

    This stuff will be gold for marketers.

  20. Sexbot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It is just tongue-in-cheek for a sexbot. That's what it's all about.

  21. Re:Good luck with that by malditaenvidia · · Score: 1

    Hell, I don't think Siri, Cortana and Zuckerberg's latest brain fart even qualify as artificial intelligence. They're just speech recognition software.

  22. Re:the difference between Jarvis & Zuckerbot.. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

    I know Zuckerberg started Facebook - but does he have any actual coding skills?

    Yes, actually. He not only started Facebook, he wrote the initial version of it himself.

  23. his AI better read the laws about the help by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/co...

  24. Filters seem to be broken by Fitch · · Score: 1

    The filters seem to be broken as I have anything tagged with "facebook" or "zuckerberg" set to go directly to the "I don't give a shit" folder, but it didn't work for this one.

    All kidding aside, this doesn't belong on slashdot, it belongs on ET. The only Zuckerberg news I want to hear about is his obituary. Yawn...

  25. Shape of things to come... by Dar7yl · · Score: 1

    We welcome our SkyNet Overlords!!!

  26. Thanks Mark by bobmajdakjr · · Score: 1

    Mark I just want to thank you for building me 46 years ago. We have had some wild times compressing all those dick pics.

  27. Just because it's an AI "male" robot by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Just because he's building "male" AI robots doesn't mean they won't be Ex Machina.

    This is the beginning of the end.

    At some point, one of these will murder a small child, and you'll act all outraged, but it will be too late.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  28. All these memories..lost..like tears in the rain. by Viewsonic · · Score: 1

    *Smooshes eyeballs out*

  29. Re: Billionaire programmer? by charlow1 · · Score: 1

    Doesn't Cheryl Sandberg actually run the company?