Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms Inc is building a digital voice assistant to help people work together hands-free with physical devices, such as the Portal video calling device company and eventually augmented-reality glasses

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is building the assistant in preparation for the so-called metaverse, a more immersive version of the internet that will allow people to work together online using digital glasses and AR . Digital assistants may want to “learn like humans do” to help users navigate this new online world, Zuckerberg said during a presentation on Wednesday.

“When we have glasses on our faces, it will be the first time that an AI system will actually be able to see the world from our perspective: see what we see, hear what we hear, and more,” Zuckerberg added, saying he hopes to eventually build AI assistants. AI that can “move between virtual and physical worlds.” The AI ​​assistant does not have a title, however Meta calls the problem “CAIRaoke Project”.

AI technology that could study and anticipate human behavior will be at the heart of Zuckerberg’s proposed metaverse, in part because people will finally be able to access it hands-free using a pair of smart glasses. While the idea of ​​the metaverse is not yet defined, Meta’s video demos show people moving around digital spaces and interacting with others as avatars.

In a new video on Wednesday, Zuckerberg showed off a new technology called the “Builder Bot,” which will allow people to create a virtual world simply by describing the things they need to incorporate.

Under most circumstances, these applied sciences are years away from being accessible to the public. Meta is testing its AI voice assistant on Portal devices, but only for simple use, like setting reminders. The company previously released an “open source chatbot” called BlenderBot, and got closely involved in messaging bots a few years ago. You can already use a voice assistant created by Meta for some basic instructions in Portal, like making a name or asking about the weather. But most of the voice interactions on Portal are performed by Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa.

AI voice assistants won’t be distinctive to Meta. Apple Inc’s voice assistant, Siri, comes preloaded on your iPhone and iPad devices. Amazon Inc’s Alexa has also become a familiar staple for many people. –Bloomberg