Meta announces ‘universe of AI’ for Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp

At a keynote speech at the annual Meta Connect conference today, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta is launching massive AI updates across the company’s applications and devices, including Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, building “state-of-the-art AI into the apps that billions of people use.”

The new AI experiences and features, providing, “different AIs for different things,” include:

A beta rollout of an “advanced conversational assistant” available on WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, and coming to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Quest 3. In the US, Meta AI will provide real-time information (thanks to a search partnership with Microsoft Bing), as well as a tool for image generation courtesy of a new image model called Emu (Expressive Media Universe). Meta AI is powered by a custom model that leverages technology from the company’s open source LLM, Llama 2.

An AI ‘cast of characters’

Meta launched 28 AIs in beta with unique interests and personalities — some are played by cultural icons and influencers, including Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner, and Naomi Osaka. Meta’s press materials call these a ‘new cast of characters – all with unique backstories.’

AI Studio Platform

Meta launched the AI Studio platform for businesses to build AI chatbots for the company’s messaging services, including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Meta also said in the coming year it will launch a sandbox tool to “enable anyone to experiment with creating their own AI.” 

Generative AI stickers across apps

Soon users will be able to edit images and co-create them with friends on Instagram using new AI editing tools, restyle and backdrop. The tool uses Llama 2 and Meta’s new image generation model, Emu, and turns text prompts into stickers in just a few in seconds. This new feature roll out to select English-language users over the next month in WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook Stories.

By saying “Hey Meta,” you can engage with Meta AI to “spark creativity, get information, and control your glasses—just by using your voice.” Starting at $299 USD, the glasses collection launches on October 17 and is available for pre-order today.

Zuckerberg cautioned that the Meta AI product launches are “early stuff,” saying they “still have lots of limitations, which is apparent when you use the — unlike Meta AI that don’t have access to real time information — there’s just a lot to improve as get more feedback.”