Meta cancels celebrity AI chatbots after user snub

With Meta investing so much in artificial intelligence, some forays will inevitably flop. This just happened with its celebrity AI chatbots – the company is moving away from them less than a year after launch.

In late 2023, Meta launched dozens of celebrity AI chatbots, which included personalities such as Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner, and Paris Hilton. Now, you can’t talk to them anymore.

As reported by The Information, the company shut down the chatbots after rolling out AI Studio, a tool that allows creators – for now, only in the United States – to create AI chatbots of themselves.

According to the website, the reversal shows that even huge firms like Meta haven’t yet figured out how to turn breakthroughs in generative AI into attractive consumer products. Of course, Meta could be hoping that the users will enjoy creating AI versions of themselves.

“You can no longer interact with AI characters embodied by celebrities,” Meta spokesperson Liz Sweeney said in a statement.

“We took a lot of learnings from building them and Meta AI to understand how people can use AIs to connect and create in unique ways. AI Studio is an evolution, creating a space for anyone, including people, creators, and celebrities, to create their own AI.”

The Information reported back in October that Meta paid some of the celebrities millions for their likenesses. Users didn't find the idea attractive, though.

Still, AI-based characters are increasingly common in the social media world. Google is reportedly planning to create its own chatbots, which would be powered by one of Gemini’s large language models.

Google is reportedly in talks with influencers and celebrities about using their images as avatars and is also planning to allow users to create their own chatbots based on prompts.