September 28, 2023: Marking its entry into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, Meta recently unveiled its virtual assistant. This announcement, made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Meta Connect 2023 event, also highlighted the introduction of an array of AI personas.
These innovations aim to enrich user interactions on platforms like WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.
Meta’s official blog post shared details on the development: “Today at Connect, we introduced new AI experiences and features to enhance your connections with others – offering tools to be more expressive, creative, and efficient.”
Here’s a closer look at what Meta has in store:
Meta AI Across Platforms
Similar to existing AI chatbots like Google Bard and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the new Meta AI serves as a multipurpose assistant.
It can tackle varied tasks, including answering queries, text generation, and language translation. The chatbot employs technology from Meta’s Llama 2 and LLM research.
Through a partnership with Microsoft Bing, users can fetch real-time information and produce images.
The company highlighted its functionality: “Meta AI provides direct options in the chat, allowing group members to collectively decide on locations to discover.”
Anticipated to be launched soon, this AI chatbot will be accessible on platforms such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and Quest 3.
A Spectrum of AI Characters
Meta is also set to roll out 28 AI characters (currently in Beta) for WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram messaging.
Each character is designed to mirror a varied ensemble of characters and boasts a distinct backstory.
For a more genuine conversation experience, Meta has collaborated with renowned cultural figures to symbolize certain AIs. These AI characters will maintain profiles on Facebook and Instagram, enabling users to discover more about them and connect with their unique traits.
Notable AI personas include Charli D’Amelio, embodied as Coco the Dance enthusiast, and Snoop Dogg represented as the adventure-guiding Dungeon Master.
Customized AI Stickers
Additionally, Meta will offer AI-driven personalized stickers, enabling users to craft tailor-made stickers for chats and stories.
Thanks to Llama 2 and an image creation model named Emu, users can swiftly convert text commands into distinct, high-quality stickers.
These stickers will soon be available to selected English-speaking users across WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook Stories.
Advanced AI Editing Tools
Meta plans to infuse Instagram with two innovative AI features: Restyle and Backdrop. While Restyle lets users incorporate visual themes into pictures through text commands, Backdrop modifies an image’s background as per given prompts.
To ensure transparency, any photos developed using Restyle and Backdrop will have an AI indication to prevent confusion with manually created content.
To further enhance its offerings, Meta is also unveiling AI Studio. This new platform is engineered to aid businesses, creators, and developers in crafting AI applications tailored for Meta’s messaging tools and the broader metaverse.
