Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, speaks at the Meta Connect event at Meta Headquarters in Menlo Park, California on September 27, 2023.
Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images
Meta announced Thursday that its free artificial intelligence assistant, Meta AI, will be rolled out to its social media platforms WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video that the assistant can answer questions, create animations and generate images. Meta AI was built on the company's latest large-scale language model called Meta Llama 3, which was also announced on Thursday.
The AI tool is Meta's competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google Gemini, but in a unique twist, Meta also partners with Google and Microsoft to provide results from both companies' search engines.
“We believe Meta AI is the most intelligent AI assistant at our disposal,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video.
Meta stock rose more than 2% on Thursday.
Meta AI is built into the search box of WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger apps, making it easier for users to ask questions through the new tool.
For example, users can ask Meta AI for restaurant recommendations, help planning a vacation, or inspiration to decorate a new apartment, the company said.
Meta AI is also available on the website meta.ai, where users can ask the assistant for help with tasks such as solving math problems or writing professional emails, according to the release. Users can record conversations for future reference.
The assistant's image generation feature will be available in beta on WhatsApp and MetaAI's website, Meta said. The image appears as the user begins typing, and MetaAI provides prompts to help change or adjust the image. Images can also be animated into GIFs and shared by users.
Meta first announced Meta AI in beta at the Connect event in September. The assistant will be rolled out in English starting Thursday in more than a dozen countries, including the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
