Robert Downey Jr. has volunteered as tribute.
Sorry, wrong franchise. Let’s start over. Robert Downey Jr. has offered to lend his signature voice help Mark Zuckerberg bring his personal AI assistant to life.
Every year, the Facebook founder sets new goals for himself ― learning Mandarin, meeting a new person every day, wearing a long sleeve T-shirt ― and in 2016 he pledged to create his own AI to “run my home and help me with my work.”
“You can think of it kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man,” he wrote in a post shortly after the new year.
On Thursday, Zuckerberg gave an update on the project by crowd sourcing opinions on who should voice the personal AI. Followers chimed in with suggestions like Arnold Schwarzenegger (aggressive), Morgan Freeman (long shot) and Judi Dench (PERFECT), but in the end, Downey reigned supreme.
After multiple commenters suggested that given his “Iron Man” pedigree Downey would be the best choice, the actor responded that he’d do it in a “heartbeat,” if Zuckerberg agreed to some conditions.
First, Downey stipulated that Paul Bettany, who voices Jarvis in the Marvel cinematic universe, must be compensated accordingly. Second, he wrote that these funds must be donated to a charity selected by Benedict Cumberbatch, who makes his Marvel debut in “Doctor Strange” next month.
See! Isn’t being rich, famous and Facebook-savvy fun?
After Downey upped the ante, Zuckerberg wrote, “This just got real.”
Some might say treal.
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