Jarvis is the new member of Mark Zuckerberg’s family. The Facebook founder created this year an artificial intelligence assistant that plays with his kid and even knows when to make his breakfast.
Facebook Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, posted a video on the social network to present Jarvis. The AI assistance was called after the interactive voice assistant built by Tony Stark in the Iron Man films. The refreshing thing is that it sounds just like actor Morgan Freeman.
“In general, I’ve found we use these more open-ended requests more frequently than more specific asks. No commercial products I know do this today, and this seems like a big opportunity” said Zuckerberg.
Jarvis: the future of AI has the voice of Morgan Freeman
Mark Zuckerberg posted on his Facebook page a video of him and his family interacting with his new intelligent home assistance: Jarvis. This AI device can control lights, the thermostat and it can even make toasts.
According to Zuckerberg, he spent more than 100 hours putting Jarvis together. He called it after the artificial intelligence assistance featured in ‘Iron Man.’ Jarvis texts Zuckerberg images of visitors, and it can open the front door to those it recognize.
Jarvis is also a babysitter. It lets Zuckerberg know when Max, his one-year-old daughter, wakes up. It can also wake up Max by playing music and teaching Max Mandarin lessons.
“Max woke up a few minutes ago. I’m entertaining her,” are some phrases said by Jarvis to Zuckerberg. “Good morning Max, let’s practice our Mandarin,” Jarvis said in the posted video.
A great thing about Jarvis is that it does not have a robotic voice. It’s sounds just like actor Morgan Freeman. Zuckerberg said he asked Freeman to provide his voice after he was chosen by the public after he posted a poll last month. According to Zuckerberg, it is easier for people to relate to a famous voice than a robotic one.
He told Freeman that thousands of people wanted him to be the voice of the AI system, and Freeman said: “Yeah, sure.” Other options for Jarvis’ voice included Robert Downey Jr. and Arnold Schwarzenegger as a disciplinary voice.
Jarvis has good taste in music
One of the things Jarvis is able to do is to play music. It looks at Zuckerberg’s past listening patterns, and usually finds a song he wants to hear. When it gets the wrong mood, Mark tells Jarvis to change it to something lighter, that way Jarvis learns to classify music.
The AI assistance can understand the differences between Mark’s and Priscilla’s, his wife, music taste. When Mark asks Jarvis to play a good song by Nickelback, the Canadian band, Jarvis jokes by saying that there are not good Nickelback songs.
According to Zuckerberg, this project has allowed him to learn more about the state of artificial intelligence and to experiment with cutting-edge technology. He said Jarvis can do a lot of things, he has even taught it to make funny phrases and games. But there are still some kinks to work out, especially regarding the voice commands. For the future, he wants Jarvis to learn new skills by itself.
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader