Robert Downey Jr. Volunteers to Voice Zuckerberg's JARVIS Assistant Zuck enlisted Facebook's billion-plus users, saying 'it's time to give my AI JARVIS a voice. Who should I ask to do it?'
By Steve Dent
This story originally appeared on Engadget
Mark Zuckerberg famously set himself a New Year's goal to create an AI assistant to control his house, and now that it's almost ready, he needs a voice for it. Naturally, Zuck enlisted Facebook's billion-plus users, saying "it's time to give my AI JARVIS a voice. Who should I ask to do it?" Someone suggested "Robert Downey Jr. or Benedict Cumberbatch," and another suggested Paul Bettany, the actual actor who plays Iron Man's JARVIS AI. Much to everyone's surprise, Downey Jr. himself replied.
"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!" he said, tying the suggestions together and seemingly plugging Cumberbatch's upcoming Dr. Strange Marvel Studios film. Zuckerberg replied in like fashion, saying "this just got real." There's no word on whether he intends to take Downey Jr. up on the offer, though the charity angle gives him a graceful way to do it.
Zuckerberg revealed recently that the assistant can control lights, open his gates and change the temperature around the house. If he can enlist theIron Man actor, it'll at least make those mundane tasks a bit more dramatic.
