Meet Jarvis: What We Know About Zuckerberg's Alexa Killer

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has built his own competitor to Amazon's Alexa, and it's running his own home.

Thanks to this smart home system, dubbed Jarvis, Zuckerberg can talk to his phone or computer to control the lighting, temperature music and home security system, he explained in a blog post.

Credit: Getty Images — (Image credit: Getty Images)

The system can recognize speech like other smart home devices, but it also uses sophisticated natural language processing that allows it to learn new words and concepts, employ facial recognition and more, Zuckerberg wrote. One thing that really sets Jarvis apart from Amazon's Alexa and Google Home system is the ability communicate with it remotely via text message. Zuckerberg can use the system to dim lights, turn on his home heat and more, he explains.

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Unfortunately, Jarvis isn't available for the average consumer yet, and so far there seems to be no indication whether Jarvis will ever make it into our homes at all. But as more consumers are making the shift to the smart home, this could be just the beginning of Facebook's venture into running much more than your social life.

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Althea Chang is Associate Director of Content Development for Consumer Reports and was previously a Senior Writer for Tom's Guide, covering mobile devices, health and fitness gadgets and car tech.