Meta Develops AI Zuckerberg Avatar for Employee Feedback, FT Reports

This article was prepared from the source material provided, which cites a Financial Times report and a January earnings call. No original reporting or interviews were conducted.

Meta is developing a photorealistic, AI-powered 3D version of CEO Mark Zuckerberg designed to converse with and offer feedback to employees, according to the Financial Times. The project is part of a broader effort to create avatars based on public figures that Meta's customers could interact with in real time.

The AI Zuckerberg will be trained on imagery of the executive and his voice. Zuckerberg is personally overseeing the effort and reportedly spends five to ten hours a week on it. Staffers are also working on a separate, unrelated "CEO agent" that would let employees retrieve information more quickly, the FT reported.

Previous Avatar Efforts Struggled

Meta's earlier attempt to recreate public figures with AI did not fare well. In October 2023, the company announced it was paying celebrities millions of dollars to turn them into chatbots. After bad press and instances of the chatbots making questionable claims on behalf of their real-life counterparts, Meta shut down the project less than a year after launching it. The chatbots continued to make eyebrow-raising comments well into 2025.

The new effort could also strain computing resources. Inside sources told the FT that the project risks becoming a significant resource hog, adding pressure to already limited computing power. Concerns have also been raised about sexualized AI avatars reaching the wrong hands.

Meta's push comes as the company faces internal and external pressures. Its Superintelligence Labs released its first AI model, "Muse Sparks," designed to be easy on compute and fast, but it falls well short of competitors in performance. Meanwhile, staffers are being pushed to use AI tools as much as possible. During a January earnings call, Zuckerberg told investors that "Meta can get more done" by "investing in AI-native tooling" while "elevating individual contributors and flattening teams."

Last month, news emerged that the company was planning sweeping layoffs that could affect at least 20 percent or more of the company. According to the FT, product managers are running staffers through AI-focused "skills baseline" and "vibe coding" exercises, prompting fears over future job cuts. Those who remain could soon be asked to sit down with a digital stand-in of Zuckerberg to get answers.