Meta announces several proprietary AI applications, including the Meta AI assistant and the Emu image generator. The company is also announcing a selection of distinct AI personalities that users can interact with on specific topics.
The Meta AI assistant is according to the company a general tool that is integrated into all company services. The model is based on Llama 2 and, thanks to a collaboration with Microsoft’s Bing, connects live to the internet to look up answers. Bing is again based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Users can start conversations with Meta AI across all of the company’s messaging services, including WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, by typing ‘@Meta AI’. The assistant will also be available in the recently announced Quest 3 VR headset and the new Ray-Ban glasses.
In line with this, Meta integrates a new generative AI for images called Emu into the umbrella Meta AI. Like similar services such as Dall-E, Stable Diffusion and ChatGPT, users can simply enter a text prompt and Emu will generate an image within five seconds, according to Mark Zuckerberg. Emu is integrated into Meta AI, which means that the generative AI is available in WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and Facebook Stories. This primarily applies to users who use the services in English. According to Meta, one can simply type ‘/imagine’ into a supported service and an image will be generated for free.
In addition to generating completely new images, Emu can also edit existing photos. The brand announces two new functions for Instagram, namely ‘restyle’ and ‘backdrop’. With restyle, existing images can be adjusted to a completely different style thanks to an AI filter. Backdrop gives the user the ability to automatically select a background and fill it with something of their choice using the generative AI, based on a prompt entered by the user.
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The same model is also used to create AI stickers. Sometime in the next month, users will be able to have stickers instantly generated for the listed services in English.
Finally, Meta previews 28 AI personalities that users can interact with via WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. According to the company, these personalities are specifically trained to have a certain identity and are based on celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady, Paris Hilton, Kendall Jenner and MrBeast. For example, the rapper Snoop Dogg is a D&D dungeon master and can be used to play the RPG. The AI version of YouTuber MrBeast voices a character named Zach, whose identity consists entirely of making jokes and roasts. This feature is in beta in the US and Zuckerberg emphasizes that the personalities still have many limitations. Later, the personalities should also be given access to the internet and eventually they should even appear as avatars in the metaverse.