Mark Zuckerberg, Iron Man and Artificial Intelligence: the surprising staging of Facebook’s boss

In a busy communication operation, the young billionaire presents “Jarvis”, the program of artificial intelligence that he developed himself.

Mark Zuckerberg stages his private life in three videos featuring “Jarvis”, an artificial intelligence program that assists him in his daily life.
It was his good resolution for 2016: Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook , had said in January that it intended to build its hands an artificial intelligence (AI) like “a kind of Jarvis in Iron Man ” . That is to say, a digital jack, able to assist in their daily and especially in his house, like the program used by the superhero played by Robert Downey Jr.
Monday, December 19, Mark Zuckerberg presented the result on his Facebook account, in a highly worked out staging that spanned over several days. Videos , Articles, “teasing” … Everything has been done to attract attention, to begin with the staging of his private life – including billionaire practice is becoming more customary.
T-shirt and fake yawn gun

Three videos very worked and scripted show how Jarvis is used by the family . We discover Mark Zuckerberg waking up, wrapped up in his quilt, greeting the program by pretending a yawn. Jarvis opened the curtains, list her appointment you , while chatting in Mandarin to his daughter in another room. He toasts to the toaster and has … a cannon to a t-shirt, which expels the famous gray garment of which the founder of Facebook never departs.
Jarvis, never stingy jokes, recognizes Zuckerberg parents at the door and let go automatically. The program can launch the music, change the temperature and turn off the light, making it sometimes sigh Priscilla Zuckerberg, perfect in the role of wife tenderly annoyed by the inventions of her husband’s genius. The tone is cheerful and humorous, backed up by a light music characteristic of the Silicon Valley commercials. And by the voice of Morgan Freeman, who plays the program, revealed to the third publication after the boss of Facebook made up suspense – the passage generating a new wave of viral and media excitement.
The communication operation is successful, even though some in mock staging “weird.” As the specialized site The Verge , who believes that “the demonstration of Mark Zuckerberg is more robotic than the house itself” , stressing that the young thirty “is not Tony Stark [billionaire behind the Iron Man armor ] , at least as regards the charism ” .
Why such a seduction operation? Jarvis is not expected to enter the market, immediately announces the boss of Facebook. But by raising the sauce around this story , Mark Zuckerberg strengthens its image of “cool guy” and sends the message that AI key issue of Web giants, is in its DNA.

An AI far from that of “Iron Man”
1.4 million “I love” later, what is Jarvis really worth? Hard to know , since demonstrations are confined to these quasi promos. Except one: a Fast Company site reporter was invited to discover Jarvis at Mark Zuckerberg. With a less than convincing results in the videos . So if Jarvis turns lights on and off wonderfully when asked to write on smartphone, it took four attempts to make it run after an oral command, says the reporter. “Wow, there’s never been so many failures” , was justified Zuckerberg embarrassed by Fast Company. We also had to repeat to her request to launch a music or turn it off. And the program sometimes mistakes room, activating light or music in the wrong place. However, it is able to learn the musical taste of the families and suggest new songs.
In short, if he is able to perform certain actions daily as is already the Alexa assistants Amazon and Google Home Jarvis is still far from its film model, despite the videos that do go to a very artificial intelligence Sophisticated, close to those of science fiction.
And this is understandable: Mark Zuckerberg said to have spent a hundred hours just to develop this tool. Comments in the space of the first video he posted, boss of Facebook has still seen fit to say : “If it would not be clear, the purpose of is to be An amusing summary and not a live demonstration. ” The last one is much clearer: humourous, it places the Jarvis perspective itself and lets hear his thoughts, as if he had.

Race to announcements
A mixture of genres that has something to sow confusion, at a time when the thundering announcements are multiplying on the progress of artificial intelligence, not always easy to decipher .
Facebook ample participates: it is part of the companies most advanced in this field, with three research centers devoted to artificial intelligence, including one in Paris . The company recruited headed the French Yann LeCun , one of the inventors of the “deep learning” , a method that has recently led to considerable progress in the field.
In the race for ads, Facebook has perhaps been less dramatic in recent months that Google , whose company Deepmind managed to create a technology capable of beating humans at the game of go , or IBM, whose program artificial intelligence, “humanized” under the identity of Watson, invites both in hospitals that law firms . The series of publications on Jarvis Mark Zuckeberg man to the 1.8 billion “friends” did not fail to arouse the interest of the general public, reinforcing the image of Facebook as a key player in the ‘artificial intelligence.