By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor
Mark Zuckerberg has announced he will build an artificial intelligence (AI) robot to assist around the house and even help with his work.
In a Facebook post he wrote: “You can think of it kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man.” The butler’s initial goals will include controlling music, lights and temperature, to recognise when friends are at the front door and to alert him if his newborn daughter needs attention.
Mark plans to build the robot with existing technology, he said: “This should be a fun intellectual challenge to code this for myself. I’ll teach it to let me know if anything is going on in Max’s (his daughter’s) room that I need to check on when I’m not with her.”
Zuckerberg recently hit the headlines when he pledged to give away 99% of his Facebook stake in the future. But he managed to fend off a wave of criticism who claimed his philanthropic gesture was actually a tax avoidance scheme.
Now he is channelling Tony Stark in a real life version of Iron Man with his “AI butler.” His announcement comes as Facebook is in the midst of AI initiatives such as building an assistant through its Messenger app for users.
Zuckerberg said the challenge was the reward of building things yourself. His previous personal challenges include learning Mandarin, reading two books a month and meeting a new person every day.
