I’m not quite clear on Meta’s current direction with AI chatbots.

Last September, during its Connect Conference—an event where the company highlights its latest technological innovations—Meta’s major announcement focused on celebrity-themed chatbots. These bots, powered by AI, allowed users to interact with them via direct messages. Now, it seems the company is shifting away from using celebrities' faces for chatbots and is instead considering the use of celebrity voices.

You’ll be able to send messages to a bot designed to mimic the voice of Snoop Dogg and receive replies in that same voice. However, these responses aren’t actually from Snoop Dogg; they come from an AI character inspired by the rapper, which doesn’t even use his name.

You'd message "Dungeon Master," and it would respond in Snoop Dogg's voice.

I’m not sure why Meta thought this would captivate people.

While some users have found value in these bots—like the chef bot inspired by Roy Choi, which is reportedly quite good at offering recipe suggestions—they could have easily provided the same utility without the celebrity profile picture. After all, does it really matter if a bot is themed around a celebrity if it’s not actually the celebrity themselves responding?

Are people really so obsessed with celebrities that even a hint of involvement from a famous person is enough to spark their interest in chatting with bots?

Apparently not, as Meta has begun quietly phasing out its celebrity-based chatbots due to lack of usage.

This isn't surprising, but it does tie into a recent Bloomberg report stating that:

“Meta is offering Hollywood celebrities millions of dollars for the right to record and use their voices for artificial intelligence projects, according to several people familiar with the negotiations. The company is in discussions with Judi Dench, Awkwafina, and Keegan-Michael Key, said the sources, who wished to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the project.”

So, celebrity-faced bots didn’t succeed, but will celebrity-voiced bots fare better?

I feel like Meta is missing the core value of bots by leaning into cheap gimmicks that they believe will boost user engagement and interest.

Perhaps they’re onto something—by creating AI bots with celebrity likenesses, whether in appearance or voice, they might attract fans and encourage them to explore Meta’s AI tools, leading to wider adoption over time.

However, it seems like a substantial financial investment in what amounts to a novelty angle that might generate some initial interest but is likely to lose its appeal quickly.

Which could be acceptable, as Meta only needs to ignite that initial adoption and interaction to get things moving. However, it’s worth noting that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed last week that the current Meta AI chatbot is “on track to become the most used AI assistant in the world.”

This isn’t surprising, considering that Meta has prominently featured the Meta AI prompt across all its apps, making it nearly impossible to search on Facebook or Instagram without inadvertently using it.

You can picture that millions of queries processed through Meta AI come from confused Facebook users who are perplexed by the lengthy responses they receive. Nevertheless, the statistics don’t lie, and Meta claims that more people are utilizing Meta AI than ChatGPT.

So, there’s that. Yet this also implies that Meta likely doesn’t need celebrity-driven gimmicks to promote its AI tools.

Right?

Maybe I’m not seeing the whole picture. Perhaps users will be more eager to engage with Meta’s AI tools if their queries are answered in the regal tones of Dame Judi Dench.

Still, it feels somewhat misplaced. I haven’t encountered a truly valuable use case for AI chatbots within social media apps, apart from ad creation and targeting (and, to some extent, search). I don’t think users of platforms designed for human connection are actively seeking bot interactions, and generating fake AI images of oneself seems like an invitation to the kind of misrepresentation that has turned off many social media users.

I doubt celebrity-voiced AI bots will be significantly different, but I suppose there’s a bit more novelty to them compared to just celebrity faces.