Mark Zuckerberg’s New Year’s resolution: Build an AI butler

Last year I set myself five New Year’s resolutions, and kept two perfectly and two imperfectly. The other was jettisoned, but not a bad return, I thought. Mark Zuckerberg is, on balance, probably busier than me, so he’s only going for one this year, although it is a touch more challenging than my aims: he wants to “build a simple AI” to run his home and assist with his work. “You can think of it kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

Mark Zuckerberg’s New Year’s resolution: Build an AI butler

I’m going to start by exploring what technology is already out there. Then I’ll start teaching it to understand my voice to control everything in our home – music, lights, temperature and so on,” he continued. “I’ll teach it to let friends in by looking at their faces when they ring the doorbell,” he added, in a move that he may swiftly regret as his life starts to feel like a 1990s sitcom.mark_zuckerberg_ai_2016

“This should be a fun intellectual challenge to code this for myself. I’m looking forward to sharing what I learn over the course of the year,” he concluded, confirming what I already knew: me and Mark Zuckerberg have very different ideas of the concept of fun.

A challenge it certainly is, though, and the Facebook founder is no stranger to setting himself tough goals for the year ahead: learning Mandarin and meeting a new person every day being two highlights.zuckerberg_learn_more_languages

Some people are never satisfied, eh?zuckerberg_pull_ups

Much of the functionality Zuckerberg talks about sounds a little similar to Internet of Things plans already afoot, and, of course, with his wealth, he could just hire a team of butlers to do his bidding for him, but there’s something quite impressive about his thirst for self-improvement despite his success… provided things don’t go too far:skynet_zuckerberg

That’s okay then.

READ NEXT: Zuckerberg says Muslims will always be welcome on Facebook, but the site turns a blind eye to hate speech.

Images: Paul Williams and Robert Scoble used under Creative Commons

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