Robert Downey Jr. Offers to Voice Mark Zuckerberg's Virtual Assistant

The 'Iron Man' actor says 'I'll do in a heartbeat' after the Facebook founder asked fans for help regarding the voice of his virtual butler.

AceShowbiz - Mark Zuckerberg is seemingly close to launch his own JARVIS and now he needs help with the voice of his virtual assistant. "It's time to give my AI Jarvis a voice. Who should I ask to do it?" so the Facebook founder asked his loyal followers on his official social media account.

%cRobert Downey Jr.% quickly replied and gave a shout-out to two other Marvel actors in the process, "I'll do in a heartbeat if Bettany gets paid and donates it to a cause of Cumberbatch's choosing...that's the right kind of STRANGE!" Zuckerberg responded, "This just got real."

%cPaul Bettany% is the original voice of Tony Stark or Iron Man's virtual butler JARVIS, on which Zuckerberg modeled his artificial-intelligent assistant, while %cBenedict Cumberbatch% is the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Doctor Strange.

"Every year, I take on a personal challenge to learn new things and grow outside my work at Facebook," Zuckerberg wrote early this year. "My personal challenge for 2016 is to build a simple AI to run my home and help me with my work. You can think of it kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man."

At a recent Facebook event in Rome, he gave update on his project, "I'm making progress - I hope to have a demo next month." He revealed, "I programmed it so when I walk up to my gate, it sees my face and lets me in. It's been a really cool experience, and I'm looking forward to showing it off next month."

"I've got to the point where I can control lights, gates, and temperature, much to the chagrin of my wife who cannot now control the temperature, as is it's programmed to only respond to my voice," he continued before he added, "I'll give her access once I'm done."

It even can make him breakfast. "The real question is not how it makes me toast, that's actually easy - you hook up an internet-powered [device] to the power and you trigger it," Zuckerberg said in a separate interview with The Verge. "The real question, which is actually the more challenging AI problem, is when to make me toast."

Facebook is also developing its own virtual assistant in hopes to rival Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana. It's reportedly named M after James Bond's secretary, Moneypenny, and given to a select group for a trial in August.

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