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Mark Zuckerberg wants to be Iron Man

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When you think of Mark Zuckerberg, you don't automatically think of Iron Man. Indeed, the only thing the Facebook CEO has in common with Tony Stark is his vast fortune, but he does have the means to create his very own digital butler. Yes, the JARVIS AI, which was voiced in the films by Paul Bettany (and was also transformed into some weird alien superhero thing in the woeful Avengers sequel), is reportedly what Zuckerberg is using at a litmus test for the AI he plans to build for his own home. This is the just latest in his series of annual challenges, which have included learning Mandarin, reading two books every month, meeting a new person every day and personally killing every animal that he eats. So whatever you think of the man, you can't say he lacks ambition!

Tony Stark's JARVIS AI is what Mark Zuckerberg is using at a litmus test for the AI he plans to build for his own home

He'll supposedly start small, by exploring what technology is already out there, which should be able to handle his initial goals like controlling music, lights, temperature, and so on. He also wants his system to be able to recognise when friends are at the front door and let them in (though I doubt he gets many house guests), alert him if his newborn daughter needs attention, and do all of this only when it recognises the person speaking.

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For the most part, that's all pretty doable with existing technology, even for the non-billionaire home builders amongst us. Indeed, he's already found the Amazon Echo to be more than sufficient for controlling his music. But that's only scratching the surface, as Zuckerberg wants the system to work without direct input by him or Priscilla Chan, his wife. He said: “I'm very interested in using voice and face recognition to set lights and temperature as well depending on who is in what rooms, etc. For example, I like rooms colder than Cilla, and but it's possible to just see who is in what room and adjust the temperatures automatically.”

Zuckerberg's annual challenges have included learning Mandarin and killing every animal that he eats

The really interesting part of Zuckerberg's AI plan, however, is when it moves past standard smart home controls and into his work. Describing the simple AI that he intends to build, he said: “On the work side, it'll help me visualise data in VR to help me build better services and lead my organisations more effectively,” and it's here where the Tony Stark comparisons come into play, as anyone who has ever seen a Marvel film will recognise that the concepts he describes have been pulled directly from Tony Stark's JARVIS system.

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Zuckerberg detailed his plans in a recent blog post, which also explained that every one of his annual challenges has a theme, this year's theme is “Invention.” He added in the post: “At Facebook I spend a lot of time working with engineers to build new things. Some of the most rewarding work involves getting deep into the details of technical projects. I do this with Oculus when we get into the details of the controllers or the software we're designing and I do this with Messenger when we discuss our AI to answer any question you have. But it's a different kind of rewarding to build things yourself, so this year my personal challenge is to do that.” Sounds like he's hankering for a chance to actually get his hands dirty for once!

Every one of Zuckerberg's annual challenges has a theme, this year's theme is “Invention”

Aside from the fictional billionaires, of course, Zuckerberg might also be able to get some tips from fellow real billionaire Elon Musk, who has already demonstrated how his work setup is similar to Tony Stark's lab, letting him use gestures and projections to manipulate rocket parts. Don't know who I'd back in a fight though.

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Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from Kidderminster in the UK who always found Iron Man to be a little smug. He's more of a Captain America guy himself.

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