Meta is making several big moves today to promote its AI services across its platform. The company has upgraded its AI chatbot with its newest Large Language Model, Llama 3, and is now running it in the search bar of its big four apps, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp in multiple countries. At the same time, the company introduced other new features, such as faster image generation and access to web search results.
This confirms and expands on a test that TechCrunch reported on last week, when we spotted that the company had begun testing Meta AI in Instagram’s search bar.
In addition, the company is also launching a new after website for users to access the chatbot.
The news underscores Meta’s efforts to carve out a position as a mover and shaker amid the current hype for AI production tools among consumers. Chasing other popular services in the market, such as those of OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg claimed today that Meta AI is possibly the “smartest AI assistant that you can freely use”.
Meta first launched Meta AI in the US last year. Now expanding the English language chatbot to more than a dozen countries including Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The company last week began testing Meta AI in countries like India and Nigeria, but notably, India was missing from today’s announcement. Meta said it plans to keep Meta AI on trial in the country at the moment.
“We continue to learn from our user trials in India. As we do with many of our AI products and capabilities, we are testing them publicly in various phases and in a limited capacity,” the company spokesperson said in a statement.
New features
Users could already ask Meta AI for writing or recipe suggestions. Now, they can also request results about the web powered by Google and Bing.
Image Credits: After
The company said it also makes creating images faster. Additionally, they can ask Meta AI to animate an image or convert an image to a GIF. Users can watch the AI tool modify the image in real time as they type. The company has also worked to improve the image quality of AI-generated photos.
Image Credits: After
AI-powered imaging tools were bad at spelling words. Meta claims its new model has shown improvements in this area as well.
All things AI everywhere at once
Meta is taking the approach of making Meta AI available to as many places as possible. It makes the bot available in the search bar, in individual and group chats, and even in the feed.
Image Credits: After
The company said you can ask questions about posts on your Facebook feed. For example, if you see a photo of the Northern Lights, you could ask Meta AI for suggestions on when is the best time to visit Iceland to see the Northern Lights.
Meta AI is already available on Ray-Ban smart glasses, and the company said it will soon be available on Meta Quest headphones.
There are downsides to having AI in so many places. In particular, models can “hallucinate” and generate random, often illogical responses, so using them across multiple platforms could end up presenting a content moderation nightmare. Earlier this week, 404 Inside reported that Meta AI, speaking to a group of parents, said that he had a gifted and academically challenged child who attended a certain school in New York. (Parents spotted the odd message, and Meta eventually stood down as well and removed the reply, saying the company would continue to work on improving these systems.)
“We share information within the features themselves to help people understand that AI can return inaccurate or inappropriate outputs. Since we launched, we’ve been constantly releasing updates and improvements to our models, and we’re still working to make them better,” Meta told 404Media.
