Meta’s new AI bet will work across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram
At Meta’s Connect event, the company made clear its intentions for generative AI and according to the company, it will be giving users the tools to be more creative, expressive, and productive.
Only available in the United States for now, Meta AI is a new assistant you can interact with like a person and will be available on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, and coming soon to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Quest 3.
It is powered by a custom AI model that leverages technology from Meta's open-source large language model (LLM) Llama 2 and the company's own LLM research. Think of Meta AI as an assistant that can answer questions, including those needing a real-time response and information, through Meta’s search partnership with Microsoft's Bing. It also has a tool for image generation so it can provide users with real-time information and generate photorealistic images from your text prompts in seconds to share with friends.
Chatting with AI stickers
Meta is announcing the launch of new AI stickers that enable users to effortlessly generate customised stickers for chats and stories. Using technology from Llama 2 and our foundational model for image generation called Emu, our AI tool turns your text prompts into multiple unique, high-quality stickers in seconds.
This new feature, which is rolling out to select English-language users over the next month in WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook Stories, provides infinitely more options to convey how you’re feeling at any moment.
AI image editing
Restyle and backdrop are two new features that are coming soon to Instagram that will allow users to transform their images or even co-create AI-generated images with friends.
Restyle reimagines images by typing a descriptor like “watercolour” or a more detailed prompt like “collage from magazines and newspapers, torn edges” to describe the new look and feel of the image you want to create.
Backdrop changes the scene or background of your image. Prompts like “Put me in front of a sublime aurora borealis” or “Surrounded by puppies” will cue the tool to create an image of the primary subject in the foreground with the background you described.
28 virtual friends
Meta also unveiled a 28 set of AI-created chatbots based on celebrities taken from the worlds of sports, music, and social media. Meta wants users to think of each of these AI characters as a cast mate with unique backstories and even profiles on Instagram and Facebook. For example:
Dwyane Wade as Victor, Ironman triathlete motivating you to be your best selfSnoop Dogg as Dungeon Master, Choose your own adventure with the Dungeon MasterCharli D’Amelio as Coco, Dance enthusiast
These will be rolling out in beta in the United States today with new characters in the coming weeks with new characters to be played by Bear Grylls, Chloe Kim, and Josh Richards amongst others.
Meta admits that its knowledge base for these AI characters is limited to information that largely existed prior to 2023, which means some responses may be dated. However, it hopes to improve this by continuing to test and evolve the AI capabilities through user interactions.
Keeping things private
Using a generative AI feature provided by Meta does not link your WhatsApp account information to your account information on Facebook, Instagram, or any other apps provided by Meta.
According to Meta, the AIs may retain and use information users share in a chat to provide more personalised responses or relevant information in that conversation, it may also share certain questions from trusted partners, such as search providers, to give a more relevant, accurate, and up-to-date responses.
Meta has built in commands that allow users to delete information shared in any chat with an AI across Messenger, Instagram, or WhatsApp. For example, you can delete your AI messages by typing “/reset-ai” in a conversation.
< PrevPage 1 of 1 – Meta’s new AI bet will work across WhatsApp, Messenger, and InstagramPage 1 of 1 – Meta’s new AI bet will work across WhatsApp, Messenger, and InstagramPage 1 of 1 Page 1 of 1 – Meta’s new AI bet will work across WhatsApp, Messenger, and InstagramNext >