Mark Zuckerberg Unveils Meta AI Chatbot, a Rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT – Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, introduced the company’s latest innovation, Meta AI, at the Meta Connect event held on September 27. This artificial intelligence (AI)-powered assistant, developed as a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, promises a tailored user experience across various Meta platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and upcoming mixed reality devices.
Powered by Meta’s advanced language model, Llama 2, and created in collaboration with Microsoft Bing, Meta AI provides users with access to real-time information from the internet. Zuckerberg emphasized that Meta AI is designed to function as a basic assistant that users can interact with seamlessly and naturally.
Unlike its competitors, Meta AI offers specialized AI products for various use cases rather than a one-size-fits-all solution. For example, the AI assistant will have distinct functionalities within each of Meta’s social media applications. Zuckerberg illustrated this approach with an example of how Meta AI could facilitate travel planning within Facebook Messenger group chats.
The assistant isn’t merely a tool for providing useful information; it is also crafted to engage users in conversation and entertainment. In line with its entertainment offerings, Meta has launched a series of chatbots modeled after approximately 30 celebrities, including Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, and former NFL star Tom Brady. These bots are designed to provide users with an engaging and amusing interactive experience.
Furthermore, Meta AI is not only capable of answering user inquiries but can also generate images using a new tool named Emu. This tool has been trained on over 1.1 billion data points, including photos and captions from Facebook and Instagram, enhancing the AI’s ability to create engaging visual content.
Initially, Meta AI will be available to a select group of users in the United States across Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp starting September 27. The AI assistant will also be integrated into Meta’s upcoming smart glasses, set to be released on October 17 for U.S. users, and the new Quest 3 VR device.
This announcement coincided with OpenAI’s update on ChatGPT, which will now offer information beyond its previous 2021 knowledge cut-off. The enhanced capabilities of ChatGPT are immediately available to Plus and Enterprise users working with the GPT-4 model, addressing the assistant’s previously limited knowledge base.
With the introduction of Meta AI, Zuckerberg aims to offer users a unique, customized AI experience across the company’s suite of products, marking a significant step in the ongoing development and integration of artificial intelligence into social media and technology platforms.