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Meta AI brings celebrity voices, lip-sync translations for Reels, image insights, and more

Published: Sep 26, 2024, 3:25 AM

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Meta Connect 2024 has rolled out a bunch of exciting new products and service updates. First up, the Meta Quest 3s is officially here, offering modern VR without breaking the bank. The tech giant also unveiled major updates to the Quest features and ecosystem. Plus, we finally got a glimpse of the long-awaited Project Orion prototype. But it wasn’t just all about AR and VR – AI also took center stage at the event.

Meta AI can now speak with the voices of Judi Dench, Kristen Bell and more

At its developer conference, Meta revealed that Meta AI, the company’s AI assistant, can now speak responses out loud on all its available platforms:

Instagram
Messenger
WhatsApp
Facebook

You can pick from a variety of voices, including AI versions of famous personalities that Meta brought on board, like Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kristen Bell.

Meta AI brings celebrity voices, lip-sync translations for Reels, image insights, and more

Meta AI voice mode opened on a smartphone.

When you use Meta AI, you can get responses in the voices of various celebrities. | Image credit – Meta

Yet, while Meta does use the voices of real-life celebrities, its new AI voice feature takes a different route than OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT, which is great at picking up emotional nuances. Instead, it leans more towards Google’s Gemini Live, where your spoken words are transcribed before the AI delivers responses in a more synthetic voice.

Meta AI updates do not stop with the new voice mode, though. The assistant is getting an upgrade with new image analysis capabilities, thanks to improvements in the underlying AI models. In supported regions, you can now share a photo of, for example, a flower and ask Meta AI to identify it or upload a picture of a dish and get the recipe for it.

Meta AI can whip up a recipe from a photo, but whether it delivers a winner or a flop is still up for debate. | Image credit – Meta

You can now also send images in a chat with Meta AI and request changes directly. Whether you want to swap out an outfit, change the background, or even add a hat to a goat – just let Meta AI know what you have in mind, and according to the company, it’ll make it happen.

Ever wondered what a hat that says "GOAT" would look like on an actual goat? | Image credit – Meta

There are also some new features specifically for Instagram. For starters, if you want to reshare a photo from your feed to your Instagram Story, Meta AI’s latest backgrounds feature can analyze the image and create a background that complements your photo.

Meta is also testing out a translation tool that automatically dubs voices in Instagram Reels. This feature not only translates what creators say but also syncs their lip movements with the new language, giving it a seamless feel.

A new tool will automatically dub voices in Instagram Reels for seamless translations. | Image credit – Meta

Right now, the tech giant is running “small tests” for this feature, focusing on videos from Latin American creators. So, if you’re in the US, you might catch some Reels in English and Spanish.

All these new Meta AI updates show that the tech giant is really diving deep into the AI world. But whether you’re ready to embrace all of it is another story. Personally, I have a bit of skepticism about making AI a staple of my social media experience. That said, some features do sound pretty useful – like getting cooking instructions just from snapping a photo of a dish. I just hope Meta AI delivers the goods when it comes to accuracy, but I guess we’ll have to test ourselves and see.

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Tsveta, a passionate technology enthusiast and accomplished playwright, combines her love for mobile technologies and writing to explore and reveal the transformative power of tech. From being an early follower of PhoneArena to relying exclusively on her smartphone for photography, she embraces the immense capabilities of compact devices in our daily lives. With a Journalism degree and an explorative spirit, Tsveta not only provides expert insights into the world of gadgets and smartphones but also shares a unique perspective shaped by her diverse interests in travel, culture, and visual storytelling.