Zuckerberg’s AI

Meet Jarvis

By Leah Etling on Feb 18, 2017 in Technology

Mark Zuckerberg recently unveiled his personal AI assistant, Jarvis. It seems to be one of his most curious inventions.

In addition to his work at Facebook, Zuckerberg takes on self-development challenges, like learning Mandarin. In early 2016, he committed to an even more ambitious project: to build an Iron Man-inspired artificial intelligence (AI) system to help him around the house.

The transition from database software creation like Facebook to AI is a massive leap, even for a mind like Zuckerberg’s. AI is intelligence exhibited by a machine. It is a flexible rational agent that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goal.

Zuckerberg’s creation resembles Marvel’s Iron Man Comics and Movies’ J.A.R.V.I.S, and not just by name. Like Tony Stark, Zuckerberg aimed to build a system that could control his home, including lights, temperature, appliances, music and security. He also wanted Jarvis to learn his tastes and patterns, new words and concepts.

Zuckerberg brought J.A.R.V.I.S to life–basically.

The video above is intended for presentation proposes rather than an actual demo of the AI robot. It’s a bit unclear what is actually real and what is overproduced. Here is what we know:

Zuckerberg’s Jarvis comes with a variety of impressive features, not the least of which is the voice of God, Morgan Freeman. Natural language processing, speech recognition, and face recognition software make interacting with Jarvis as natural as carrying out a conversation with a friend. He even has a sense of humor.

The AI includes smart home features. His vision (via cameras and customized software) can tell people and objects apart, and detect movement. Zuckerberg also installed unique features in the house and connected them to Jarvis, including the toaster and a t-shirt cannon that dispenses clothing on command.

Commands may be issued verbally, in-person. When Zuckerberg is not in the mood to talk, or he is out of the house, he can text commands through the custom app that he developed. The app permits remote control of Jarvis and the smart home features.

Converting conventional household appliances and fixtures into smart home components was no small feat. Zuckerberg had to interconnect appliances throughout the house, most of them manually and with a lot of coding.

After that, Zuckerberg wrote code so that his computer could control those items, initially communicating with them only through text. Then he made the Jarvis app for his phone so that he could directly talk to the AI. The AI robot interprets the commands through Python, PHP and Objective C.

Zuckerberg says he spent about 100 hours building the AI.

According to the Facebook CEO, building Jarvis was an interesting intellectual challenge and it gave him direct experience configuring AI tools. Even though the 2016 challenge is over, Zuckerberg said he will continue upgrading and adding new features to Jarvis.

Jarvis initiates his own personal development and upgrades as well. Like all AI, Jarvis will continue to evolve. The more context he has, the smarter he gets overall and the better he can handle open-ended requests.

Though Zuckerberg’s attempt is exceptional, no one has mastered a sentient, self-learning robot. Many are trying and perhaps we will make fundamental breakthroughs along the way. We may see full-fledged AI in our lifetime.

Meanwhile, if you are interested in having a bit of fun and an interactive experience with the original Jarvis from Iron Man, you can always download Marvel’s Iron Man 3 – JARVIS: A Second Screen Experience App from the App Store.