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Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg says his goal for 2016 is to build a virtual assistant powered by artificial intelligence.PHOTO:CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS/REUTERS
(Wall Street Journal)This year,Mark Zuckerbergwants to be more like Tony Stark.
In aFacebookpost Sunday, the social network’s founder and chief executive said his personal challenge for 2016 is to build an assistant powered by artificial intelligence to help him at home and work.
“You can think of it kind of like Jarvis,” Mr. Zuckerberg wrote, referring to the artificial-intelligence assistant used by Mr. Stark, the fictional main character played by actor Robert Downey Jr. in the movie “Iron Man.”
Mr. Zuckerberg said he would code the AI assistant himself and start by exploring pre-existing technologies. He plans to train his virtual assistant to understand his voice and help guide responsibilities at his home, such as keeping watch over infant daughter Max.
“I’ll teach it to let friends in by looking at their faces when they ring the doorbell,” Mr. Zuckerberg wrote in his post. “I’ll teach it to let me know if anything is going on in Max’s room that I need to check on when I’m not with her. On the work side, it’ll help me visualize data in [virtual reality] to help me build better services and lead my organizations more effectively.”
Mr. Zuckerberg’s personal challenge for 2016 is more technical than in years past. Last year, he promised to read a book every two weeks. In 2011, he only ate meat that he killed himself.
AI-powered digital assistants such asAppleInc.’s Siri,AlphabetInc.’s Google Now andMicrosoftCorp.’s Cortana are commanding a lot of attention in Silicon Valley. Facebook Inc. is developing its own artificial-intelligence assistant called “M,” which is embedded in its Facebook Messenger app. Last year, Facebook bought Wit.ai, a voice-recognition startup backed by venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz that aims to help machines understand humans.
Mr. Zuckerberg hasn’t selected a name for his virtual assistant yet. He said that he would probably build it with Facebook-developed technology so he could access work conducted by the social network’s artificial-intelligence research team.
In the comments section of his post, one person urged him to “create a kind enough AI that won’t stage a violent takeover of the human race.”
Mr. Zuckerberg responded: “That’s the plan. (A kind AI.)”
“I think we can build AI so it works for us and helps us,” he said, replying to another comment on the post. “Some people fear-monger about how AI is a huge danger, but that seems far-fetched to me and much less likely than disasters due to widespread disease, violence, etc.”
