Meta, formerly Facebook, has introduced a lineup of new chatbots for its Messenger service, each featuring distinct “personalities” and specialized knowledge in various subjects, such as holidays or cooking advice.
This development marks the latest move in the ongoing chatbot race among tech giants striving to create more accurate and personalized artificial intelligence (AI) experiences.
During Meta’s first in-person event in California since before the pandemic, CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the company’s significant progress in the field of AI, describing it as an “amazing year for AI.”
The primary chatbot, named “Meta AI,” is designed for use in messaging. Users can engage Meta AI by asking questions or seeking information, potentially settling disputes or seeking general knowledge. The chatbot is based on Llama 2, a large language model that Meta released for public commercial use in July.
Several celebrities, including Snoop Dogg and Kendall Jenner, have partnered with Meta to lend their personalities to various chatbots. The objective is to create chatbots that offer more than just factual answers, focusing on entertainment value.
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Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that the chatbots have some limitations in terms of the questions they can answer.
The rollout of these chatbots is scheduled to begin in the United States in the coming days.
In addition to chatbots, Zuckerberg discussed Meta’s ambitious venture into the metaverse, a virtual world concept that the company has heavily invested in. While Meta had previously unveiled its new virtual reality headset, Quest 3, further details were provided during the event.
Zuckerberg described Quest 3 as the first “mainstream” mixed reality headset, featuring forward-facing cameras to enable augmented reality experiences. The headset is set to become available on October 10.
Despite Meta’s significant investments in the metaverse, the company’s VR division has incurred losses totaling $21 billion (£17 billion) since the beginning of 2022. This financial challenge arises as competitors like Apple have entered the high-end mixed reality hardware market.
Commenting on Meta’s strategy, Mat Day, Global Gaming Strategy Director for EssenceMediacom, noted that Mark Zuckerberg has “reinvigorated” the VR sector by positioning Meta’s VR hardware for the mass market, in contrast to Apple’s focus on high-end tech enthusiasts.
This announcement from Meta coincided with OpenAI’s confirmation that its chatbot, ChatGPT, can now browse the internet for current information, expanding its capabilities beyond its previous training data up to September 2021.
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