Since burning through tens of billions of dollars on its flop “metaverse” concept and laying off thousands in the aftermath of that gamble, tech giant Meta has strained to reinvent itself as a company poised to capitalize on the overhyped AI revolution. Last year, for example, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled animated AI chatbots modeled as alter egos of celebrities including Snoop Dogg, MrBeast, Paris Hilton, and Kendall Jenner.

But licensing the voices and likenesses of famous people did little to endear Meta to the younger demographics it wants...