Mark Zuckerberg made a smart home AI and it’s almost finished

 

Back in January, Mark Zuckerberg announced that his personal challenge for the year would be to develop an artificial intelligence capable of controlling his house similar to J.A.R.V.I.S. from Iron Man. Now the Facebook CEO says he’s almost ready to show off the new AI.

“I hope to have a demo, hopefully next month,” he said during a Facebook Town Hall Q&A session broadcast live from Rome on Monday, August 29.

Zuckerberg’s AI is capable of controlling the house, including connected lights and thermostat. It was developed with help from Facebook engineers and uses voice recognition along with face recognition software. So it can do things like open the gate to his house without needing to receive a specific command first.

“It’s starting to be able to do some pretty fun things,” Zuckerberg said, “and I’m looking forward to being able to show it to the world.”

The Facebook founder also admitted that he’s the only one who can control the AI for now. Not even his wife, Priscilla Chan, is able to use it. “I’ll give her access once I’m done,” he said.

It’s still unclear exactly what Zuckerberg plans to do with the AI once it’s finished. What started as a personal challenge could end becoming the company’s answer to the Amazon Echo, Google Home and whatever competing smart home hub Apple is working on.