Mark Zuckerberg's home assistant is voiced by Morgan Freeman. Seriously.
One of the richest men in the world now has God as his personal assistant.
Well, the voice of God. Who better for the man who oversees a network of more than 1.8 billion people and has ambitions to connect the world?
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed Tuesday that actor Morgan Freeman is the voice behind his home AI assistant, the project he tasked himself to complete during 2016.
Zuckerberg has said he was inspired by Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr., and his AI assistant Jarvis. Conveniently enough, Downey Jr. volunteered Jarvis' fictional voice (played by actor Paul Bettany) for the AI, but Zuckerberg declined the offer.
Why? The people chose God Freeman. Zuckerberg asked the Facebook community to post on his timeline with suggestions for the voice back in October, and Freeman was the "overwhelming choice" out of the 50,000 comments, Fast Company reports.
Facebook did not disclose whether or not Freeman was paid.
Freeman's voice doesn't have to boom throughout the Zuckerberg home all that often. Many of the commands the AI assistant follows are text-based. Zuckerberg can use Facebook's Messenger app to turn lights on and off, play music and open his front gate, as Fast Company reported in another feature.
It isn't the first time Freeman's been the voice of tech. Freeman also provides a voice option for Google-owned navigation app Waze.
Topics Artificial Intelligence Facebook
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
