Meta Platforms Inc. — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — is offering Hollywood celebrities millions of dollars to record their voices for AI projects, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The company has been in talks with major stars including Dame Judi Dench, Awkwafina, and Keegan-Michael Key as it races to build out a suite of AI voice tools ahead of its Connect 2024 event in September.
Meta's AI Voice Deals with Celebrities
Meta has been negotiating multi-million dollar AI voice deals with some of Hollywood's biggest names. Sources privy to the discussions confirm that Judi Dench, Awkwafina, and Keegan-Michael Key are among those approached, though the contents of the negotiations remain private and Meta employees have declined to comment publicly.
The goal is to create AI chatbot voice personalities — allowing users to, for example, hold a real-time conversation with a Meta AI assistant that speaks in the voice of Awkwafina, functioning like a next-generation virtual assistant similar to Apple's Siri.
Deals Timed to Meta Connect 2024
Meta is racing to close these celebrity AI voice deals in time to unveil the resulting tools at Meta Connect 2024, its annual hardware and software showcase scheduled for September. The company wants a ready catalog of AI voice personalities available for public use at launch, making the timeline tight.
The urgency reflects Meta's broader push to compete in the AI assistant space, where rivals like Apple, Google, and OpenAI are all investing heavily in voice-driven experiences.
Negotiation Challenges and Actors' Rights
The negotiations have not been straightforward. A major point of tension involves the scope of usage rights. Meta is seeking broad, extended rights to use the celebrities' voices across projects and for a defined period, while the actors' representatives are pushing for far more limited terms.
These concerns are not new to Hollywood. AI has sparked intense debate within the entertainment industry over the potential erosion of jobs and creative rights. Those fears were central to the 2023 labor strikes, when screenwriters and actors walked off the job partly to secure protections against AI-generated replicas of their likenesses and voices.
SAG-AFTRA, the primary union for screen actors, has been engaged in separate negotiations with Meta over the conditions governing these AI voice projects — adding another layer of complexity to the deals.
Meta's Previous Celebrity AI Experiments
This is not Meta's first attempt to weave celebrity identity into its AI products. The company previously developed AI chatbots modeled on the personas and images of public figures including Dwayne Wade and Paris Hilton — a project that was ultimately discontinued.
More recently, Meta introduced an AI Studio feature that allows public figures and creators to build AI chatbots about themselves, giving them more direct control over how their digital identity is used.
Industry Watching Closely
As Meta pursues these aggressive AI voice deals, the broader entertainment industry is watching carefully. The central question — how to balance technological innovation with the protection of artists' rights and livelihoods — remains unresolved, and the outcomes of these negotiations could set important precedents for how AI and Hollywood coexist going forward.
