Meta AI brings celebrity voices, lip-sync translations for Reels, image insights, and more

When you use Meta AI, you can get responses in the voices of various celebrities. | Image credit – Meta

Yet, while Meta does use the voices of real-life celebrities, its new AI voice feature takes a different route than OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT, which is great at picking up emotional nuances. Instead, it leans more towards Google’s Gemini Live, where your spoken words are transcribed before the AI delivers responses in a more synthetic voice.Meta AI updates do not stop with the new voice mode, though. The assistant is getting an upgrade with new image analysis capabilities, thanks to improvements in the underlying AI models. In supported regions, you can now share a photo of, for example, a flower and ask Meta AI to identify it or upload a picture of a dish and get the recipe for it.

You can now also send images in a chat with Meta AI and request changes directly. Whether you want to swap out an outfit, change the background, or even add a hat to a goat – just let Meta AI know what you have in mind, and according to the company, it’ll make it happen.

 

Ever wondered what a hat that says “GOAT” would look like on an actual goat? | Image credit – Meta

There are also some new features specifically for Instagram. For starters, if you want to reshare a photo from your feed to your Instagram Story, Meta AI’s latest backgrounds feature can analyze the image and create a background that complements your photo.

Meta is also testing out a translation tool that automatically dubs voices in Instagram Reels. This feature not only translates what creators say but also syncs their lip movements with the new language, giving it a seamless feel.

Right now, the tech giant is running “small tests” for this feature, focusing on videos from Latin American creators. So, if you’re in the US, you might catch some Reels in English and Spanish.

All these new Meta AI updates show that the tech giant is really diving deep into the AI world. But whether you’re ready to embrace all of it is another story. Personally, I have a bit of skepticism about making AI a staple of my social media experience. That said, some features do sound pretty useful – like getting cooking instructions just from snapping a photo of a dish. I just hope Meta AI delivers the goods when it comes to accuracy, but I guess we’ll have to test ourselves and see.