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Morgan Freeman To Voice Mark Zuckerberg's Jarvis (usatoday.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the voice-from-above dept.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently demoed his homemade artificial intelligence assistant Jarvis for Fast Company, and while their report didn't mention anything specific about the assistant's synthesized voice at the time, we have now learned that Morgan Freeman will be the voice behind Jarvis. Robert Downey Jr. originally volunteered to be the new voice of Jarvis under certain conditions, but Zuckerberg decided to let the public weigh in on Facebook. With more than 50,000 comments, Morgan Freeman emerged victorious. USA Today reports: Zuckerberg told Fast Company he called Freeman and said: "Hey, I posted this thing, and...thousands of people want you to be the voice. Will you do it?" Freeman told Zuckerberg: "Yeah, sure." Of course, Freeman has other starring voice roles in the tech world. He's one of the celebrity voices on Google's navigation app Waze. Facebook has not disclosed whether Freeman is getting paid, according to Fast Company.

11 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Samuel L. Jackson by DrNico · · Score: 5, Funny

    would have been a more fun choice. When Samuel L. Jackson says it's time to go to bed, you go to bed.

    1. Re:Samuel L. Jackson by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, you could have it start a conversation with Siri -

      "English motherfucker, do you speak it?"

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. Why not get Paul Bettany? by Rakarra · · Score: 4, Informative

    Much cheaper than Morgan Freeman or Robert Downey Jr, and he's a good Jarvis in the Iron Man movies.
    Or just as well, hire Stephen Fry, then you could have the voice of Jeeves.

    1. Re:Why not get Paul Bettany? by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 2

      Or just as well, hire Stephen Fry, then you could have the voice of Jeeves.

      If we're going to go English, my personal choice would have been Brian Sewell -- unfortunately he died last year (and he'd never be caught dead OR alive doing such a thing). If you don't know him, watch a YouTube video or two. The guy came across as the most pretentious ass -- excuse me, arse -- in all of the UK (though I often found him to be unintentionally hilarious to listen to), and he was widely known as the only person in Britain with a more posh accent than the Royal Family.

      But his posh accent and condescending tone would be absolutely hilarious in something like this.

  3. Obligatory XKCD by ClickOnThis · · Score: 3, Funny

    https://xkcd.com/462/

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  4. Kind of disappointing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...reading the comments on a /. story, expecting to encounter insight and interesting points-of-view but, instead, it is just juvenile and stupid racist bullshit.

    1. Re:Kind of disappointing... by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2

      Both this story and the last story are completely devoid of technical details. The only thing this story adds is that Morgan Freeman is going to voice it.

  5. One big issue with this by wjcofkc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I nearly sat through the whole promo video, here is an abridged paraphrase:

    "I personally created this AI as a project to..."

    "I wrote this app to control it..."

    Look, I get it, he has his once a year project, but I refuse to believe he wrote the whole AI and the software to interact with it by himself. Yet, if you watch the video that is exactly what he says. If he can do that - all by himself as he states - in order to run a company and develop an advanced AI, he must be doing some kind of super-meth that does not leave you all ate up. I get the feeling there are some engineers at Facebook that face palmed over that. Credit needs to be given where it is due.

    Past that, as much as I appreciate the likes of Alexa and Google Now (Cortana catching up?), Facebook is the last company I am going to give that kind of access to. I took the plunge and deleted my Facebook account years ago. Facebook is dehumanizing, and with it's mass that is a dangerous thing.

    --
    Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
    1. Re:One big issue with this by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Repeat after me: Alexa, Google Now, Cortana and Zuckerbergs thing ARE NOT AI. Not even close.

    2. Re:One big issue with this by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

      He did not write the "AI" component (I use the term generously), nor the voice / face recognition software, nor the part that interacts with the home automation devices. These already existed. Zuckerberg's work was primarily an integration effort, combining more or less off-the-shelf stuff. It's a cool project but it's hardly groundbreaking; many home automation enthusiasts have built similar and better systems, and in less time (though they probably had a somewhat less demanding day job...)

      With that said, I think it's commendable to get some hands-on experience if you're going to get closely involved in the development of such a product in your company. But let's not make it any more than it is: an interesting hobby project. And I agree: I'm not going to let any company have access to a bunch of open mikes around my home.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  6. yay SJW! by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 2

    So, trying to break from the misogynist mold, the newest AI is finally something like the butler I wanted. EXCEPT IT'S A HYPHENATED-AMERICAN!!!

    So great, I can either FEEL GUILTY of male privilege with Alexa, Siri, etc or now I can FEEL GUILTY of white privilege with Jarvis.

    Or infringement on Marvel's copyright.

    One or the other two.