Instagram owner Meta says Dame Judi Dench and John Cena will be voice options for its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.

Users can also get information from AI versions of Awkwafina, Keegan-Michael Key, or Kristen Bell.

Meta hopes that using chatbots with celebrities will work out better than the previous attempt.

In September 2023, it debuted what it called AI chatbots with “personality”based on celebrities like Kendall Jenner and Snoop Dogg, but less than a year later the plug was pulled.

The tech giant’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced a new step toward celebrity chatbots at the company’s annual Connect conference.

“I think voice will be a much more natural way of interacting with AI than text,” he told attendees.

Other new features of the ChatGPT-like chatbot include being able to recognize things users photograph and provide them with information about them.

An image editing feature allows users to adjust photos by telling the Meta AI what changes they want.

According to the company, more than 400 million people now use Meta AI each month, and 185 million of them use it every week.

Zuckerberg also unveiled the first working prototype of Meta’s augmented reality (AR) glasses, called Orion.

Showing off the Orion glasses, Mr. Zuckerberg said: “A lot of people have said this is the craziest technology they’ve ever seen.”

Users can interact with Orion via hand tracking, voice, and a wrist-based interface.

Meta has also announced an entry-level version of its Quest line of mixed reality headsets. Prices for the new Quest 3S start at $300 (£225).

Some of the world’s largest tech companies are developing AR glasses, but have yet to launch commercially successful mass-market devices.

In recent years, Meta has invested billions of dollars in the development of AI, AR and other metaverse technologies.

The company expects to spend as much as $40 billion on new projects this year, a record amount.

Before the event, Meta shares closed trading on Wednesday at a record high of $568.31.

The company, which also owns the social media platforms Facebook and WhatsApp, has seen its stock market value rise by more than 60% since the beginning of this year.

Ahead of Meta’s annual presentation, thousands of Facebook and Instagram users, many of them celebrities, shared a Stories post that falsely claimed people should repost the post if they didn’t want the company to use their content to train its AI tools.

James McAvoy and Tom Brady were among those who fell for the hoax.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed that users can only object to the use of their content by submitting an objection form.

You can do this by clicking on any notification about the plans that is sent to users, or by going to the privacy center under account settings.