Legendary Actor Morgan Freeman To Voice Mark Zuckerberg’s Jarvis Home AI
How would you like it if Morgan Freeman turned on your lights, kept on an eye on your house, and even made you toast? You may not be able to get him physically in your house, but his dulcet voice could be coming to home
AI very soon. Morgan Freeman has agreed to be the voice of
Mark Zuckerberg’s home AI,
Jarvis.
This past October, Zuckerberg asked in a
Facebook post who his followers believed should voice Jarvis.
Actor Robert Downey Jr. leapt at the chance. He said that he would "do it in a heartbeat" if actor Paul Bettany, the voice of Jarvis in the
Iron Man films, got paid and the resulting money went to a charity of Benedict Cumberbatch’s choice.
Morgan Freeman, however, was Facebook’s overwhelming favorite. Zuckerberg stated, “I called him after and I said, ‘Hey, I posted this thing, and...thousands of people want you to be the voice. Will you do it?’” Morgan Freeman responded, “Yeah Sure.”
The home AI was Zuckerberg’s 2016 project and tests the limits of the
loT. Earlier this year he remarked, “I'll teach it to let friends in by looking at their faces when they ring the doorbell. 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
VR to help me build better services and lead my organizations more effectively.”
Most of Zuckerberg’s interactions with Jarvis are actually text-based through a
Messenger bot or custom
iPhone app. Some occasions, however, call for voice interaction. Morgan Freeman will therefore be recording a limited number of commands. There is no word yet whether or not Freeman will be compensated.