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Meta is launching AI-powered character chatbots on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp and enabling developers to create their own versions of AI assistants as the US tech giant looks to boost engagement on its platforms.
At its Connect developer conference on Wednesday, Meta unveiled an artificial intelligence assistant that will be able to search for answers to user questions through collaboration with Microsoft’s Bing and artificial intelligence image generation.
Users of the Meta platform can also interact with 28 chatbots that take on roles played by celebrities who have agreed to have their voices and likenesses used in the feature. Cook Roy Choi voices a sous chef named Max who will be able to generate recipes based on a list of ingredients fed into the system, while American rapper Snoop Dogg Dogg) plays the Dungeon Master who will take you through a text-based adventure.
Meta said the AI assistants and characters will be available in beta mode in the U.S. starting Wednesday, but there are plans for “more to come in the coming weeks” across a range of interest areas including gaming, philosophy and fashion. The Financial Times first reported on Meta’s role-based chatbot plans this summer.
“It’s not just about answering questions,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the meeting. “It’s about entertainment, it’s about helping you do things that connect with the people around you and help you accomplish the things you want,”
Facebook’s parent company also announced that developers will be able to build their own artificial intelligence for use on Meta’s messaging platform. Since Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November, the company has raced to capitalize on the boom in generative artificial intelligence, launching a separate feature next year that will allow those who can’t code to create their own bots.
Meta’s presentation of the products comes as the company fights back from what Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has called a “year of efficiency,” in which it laid off tens of thousands of employees and downsized. downsized the real estate business and cut back on low priorities. Meta’s shares have more than tripled from their November 2022 lows amid cost cuts and a renewed focus on artificial intelligence.
The social media company also revealed more details about its latest headset, an update to its best-selling Quest 2. The “mixed reality” Quest 3 combines virtual and augmented reality, superimposing digital images on the real world, and will be released next month for $499.99.
The Meta is scheduled to ship starting October 10, while Apple’s Vision Pro headphones are set to be released early next year for $3,499.
Zuckerberg is keen to stress that he has not given up on his ambitions for metaverses, where people interact in virtual environments and worlds. “I think that in the near future, when you walk into a room, you will find as many digital holograms as physical objects for you to interact with,” he said in his opening remarks. He said Meta’s ultimate goal is to have artificial intelligence characters such as Max appear in the Metaverse in the form of avatars.
He added that the company was rolling out these new features “a little slower than usual” due to privacy and security concerns and to address any issues.
The next generation of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses were also unveiled, with a new feature of live streaming directly to Instagram and Facebook. Mehta said the glasses will be updated next year and will eventually be able to recognize buildings and translate signs in different languages.
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