Meta is paying freelancers to record their smiles, movements, and small talk - data to train Codec Avatars

Meta Is Paying $50 an Hour to Train Avatars for Smart Glasses and VR - Business Insider

"Project Warhol" comes as Meta calls 2025 its "most critical year" for VR, avatars, and AI wearables.

businessinsider.com

Meta’s new gig: get paid to smile, squat, and chat

Meta has quietly kicked off “Project Warhol,” a data-collection effort run through Appen, that pays participants $50 an hour to record facial expressions, body movements (think squats), and even small talk. The goal? To supercharge the realism of its VR avatars for the metaverse—and ultimately make everyone’s digital doppelgänger a lot less robotic.

Why now? A make-or-break 2025 for Reality Labs

Reality Labs has bled about $60 billion since 2020, and Meta’s calling 2025 its most critical year for VR, avatars, and AI wearables. By crowdsourcing human data, Zuckerberg hopes to finally level up Meta’s metaverse cred and turn those once-mocked cartoon avatars into something you’d actually want hanging out with.