Would you like to hearMorgan Freeman’s voice at your house all day? Well,Mark Zuckerbergis going to have that luxury in his life soon. For a little over a year now, Facebook CEOMark Zuckerberghas been teasing that he is making a personalAI assistantnamed Jarvis, which was inspired byIron Man. It is only for him and his family right now, but he is currently in the process of getting someone to provide the voice for Jarvis and it looks likeMorgan Freemanhas agreed.
According to a recent report byFast Company,Mark ZuckerberggotMorgan Freemanto agree to provide the voice for Jarvis. According to the report, he recently ran intoMorgan Freemanat the Breakthrough Awards and shortly after, gave him a call to ask if he would do it.Freemanagreed, saying “Yeah, sure.”
Back in October,Mark Zuckerbergasked people on hisFacebookwall who he should get to provide the voice for Jarvis. Funnily enough,Robert Downey Jr.actually offered to provide the voice, but the fan response overwhelmingly favoredMorgan Freeman. So, the 32-year-old Facebook CEO took that into account and snatched up the opportunity to getFreemanand his legendarily epic voice for his personal assistant. That said, the report notes it won’t be overly extensive. Apparently,Mark Zuckerberg’s family usually has text interactions with Jarvis now, but once there is an actual human voice, that will change. Here is what he had to say about it.
“Once you’re able to speak to it, and it can speak back, it just feels much more-I don’t want to say part of the family, because that’s too much-but it just feels more embodied, so Max just loves it.”
In the Marvel movies,Jarvisactually stands for Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. It isn’t really clear how far along Mark Zuckerberg’s version of Jarvis is or just how intelligent it will be, but there are a few things we know. It can turn the lights in his house off and on, play personalized music, open the front gate to his house and even make toast. How much better will it be once Jarvis can say “Your toast is ready” in Morgan Freeman’s voice? There is no word yet on if this will ever be made available to the public, but it is hard to imagine it won’t at some point since there is definitely some money to be made. Especially ifMorgan Freemanis providing the voice.
Morgan Freemanhas done a ton of voice work in the past, like in the documentaryMarch of the Penguinsand even for thetraffic appWaze. Time even pointed out in February that there are scientific reasons most people find the 79-year-old actor’s voice so comforting, partially because his voice is perceived to be that of a strong male figure. Don’t get your hopes up too much at this point, but if we’re lucky, we may all be able to haveMorgan Freemanhelping us out at home in the near future.
