Black Mirror becomes reality? Zuckerberg is exposed for creating AI digital avatars, so future interactions with employees won't require real-person attendance.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is developing lifelike AI digital avatars, aiming to enable interaction across time and space. Meta has allocated a budget of $100 billion to drive its Personal Superintelligence plan.

Lifelike AI avatars appear at Meta, with Zuckerberg putting in training to build digital replicas

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Mark Zuckerberg) is leading a company experiment, using artificial intelligence technology to “digitalize” himself. According to a report by The Financial Times, Meta is internally developing an AI-driven version of Zuckerberg that features lifelike impressions and 3D visual effects. The project is designed to allow the CEO to interact in real time with employees around the world without personally attending in person. This initiative is led by Meta’s newly established Superintelligence Labs, and it has now entered the initial testing phase.

These digital avatars have highly lifelike appearances and deeply integrate Zuckerberg’s language style, facial expressions, vocal tone, and public speaking delivery patterns. To ensure the AI’s responses align with the person’s strategic thinking, the development team has incorporated training using Zuckerberg’s recent internal views on company development and his public statements. Zuckerberg himself shows a high level of interest in the project, even participating personally in technical fine-tuning—so that when employees communicate with the AI avatar, they feel a connection as if they were speaking face to face with the founder.

Compared with the virtual avatars criticized on Metaverse platforms back in 2022, Meta is now pursuing extreme realism. This 3D character can provide feedback, participate in conversations in virtual space, and simulate natural video calls. To improve the naturalness of what the AI says and eliminate interaction delays, Meta has acquired two voice technology companies in succession to strengthen its technical foundation.

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Shifting toward the superintelligence industry, Meta pours big money into the Personal Superintelligence plan

As Meta shifts its focus toward generative AI, its capital expenditure budget has surged accordingly. Market data shows that Meta’s capital expenditures in 2026 are expected to be between $115 billion and $135 billion, nearly double the scale of the previous year. This spending is mainly used to expand computing capacity to support the vision of “Personal Superintelligence.” Meta’s recently released Muse Spark model is a product of this strategy. This dedicated model, with health reasoning and visual understanding capabilities, boosted the company’s stock price on the day of its release.

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Meta’s internal AI transformation is reflected in the CEO’s avatar, and it is also being rolled out across all employees. Currently, Meta requires employees to introduce agent tools into their day-to-day work processes, and encourages the use of open-source software to design automated agent programs to improve efficiency. Product managers also took part in a technical evaluation called “Skills Benchmarking Exercise,” which includes system design testing and the recently popular “Vibe Coding.” Some employees are worried this could be laying the groundwork for future layoffs, showing that the technical changes are bringing internal unease.

In addition, Meta is extending these AI virtual technologies to the creator ecosystem. Through the AI Studio platform, in the future influencers and creators can build their own AI digital avatars to respond to fan messages and handle business interactions. In social commerce, Meta has already rolled out new features in multiple countries, enabling merchants to link their product catalog to Reels so that content output directly converts into a digital storefront with shopping functionality.

Digital legacy management patent: Meta envisions letting users keep posting after death

Meta’s application of digital avatars is extending to the boundary of life rights and interests. Recently, a patent document showed that Meta is exploring the possibility of using AI to imitate the behavior patterns of deceased users. The technology analyzes a user’s posts, comments, like records, and private messages made while they were alive, and then trains a bot that can mimic their personality and tone—so the account remains active after the user passes away.

This “AI copycat” can automatically post updates, reply to messages from friends and family, and even communicate with the living through voice or video call technologies. In the patent document, Meta explains that when an influential user or a loved one disappears, it will impact the community network’s user experience. Therefore, the AI copycat can fill this emotional void. This is similar to the concept behind an AI chatbot patent Microsoft obtained earlier—both involve simulating interactions with deceased people.

This technology has sparked intense criticism on social platforms. Netizens liken it to plotlines from the sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror, worrying that corpses are being commercialized and even turned into tools for scam groups. Scholars point out that the key to how humans experience grief lies in confronting real loss; the superficial “resurrection” enabled by AI copycats may lead to psychological confusion and even hinder the normal grieving process. Meta clarified that it is applying for the patent to protect the technology concept and does not mean the function will necessarily be implemented formally.

Related news: Has Black Mirror come true? Meta’s new patent “AI copycat” lets you keep posting after you die, triggering huge ethical controversy

Ethics and privacy challenges: the double-edged sword effect of digital avatar technology

As virtual avatar technology moves toward real-world implementation, rights and legal issues behind it are gradually coming to the surface. Zuckerberg’s AI avatar developed internally by Meta faces ambiguity around the boundaries of power. When employees talk with an AI CEO, they may treat the AI’s responses as official instructions. If the AI generates incorrect recommendations, the relevant accountability mechanisms and legal responsibilities are still in a gray area.

Privacy and data security are another major challenge. Training lifelike avatars requires massive amounts of personal biometric data, including face capture and voice samples. For ordinary users, this involves the management of digital legacy rights after death; for companies internally, it faces the risk of confidential strategic leaks. Meta has previously drawn the attention of regulators due to inappropriate statements generated by AI chatbots, indicating that AI agents can easily trigger social conflicts in the absence of a well-developed governance framework.

Despite ongoing controversy, Meta is steadfast in developing AI agentization. From real-world testing of stablecoin payments at Japanese financial institutions to Meta’s research and development of 3D virtual avatars, the combination of blockchain and AI technology is trying to redefine the boundary between the real world and the digital world. In the future, when receiving information on social media, the sender could be a real person—or a perfectly trained AI avatar. This technology shortens the distance between people, while also testing the value of authenticity.