Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has revealed its latest innovation in the world of AI chatbots. These chatbots are designed to have distinctive personalities and specialize in various subjects, ranging from providing holiday recommendations to offering cooking advice.
This move is part of the ongoing competition among tech companies to develop more accurate and personalized artificial intelligence.
The chatbots, which are still a work in progress, aim to enhance virtual interactions by adding a human-like touch. However, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that there are limitations to these chatbots’ capabilities.
During an event in California, Zuckerberg discussed the remarkable progress made in the field of AI over the past year.
The company’s primary chatbot, known as “Meta AI,” can be used within the Messenger service. Users can interact with Meta AI to ask questions, settle disputes, or engage in conversations.
The main chatbot is built on Llama 2, a large language model that Meta introduced for public commercial use in July. Notably, several celebrities have agreed to lend their personalities to different chatbots.
Personalities like Snoop Dogg and Kendall Jenner are involved in this endeavor to create chatbots that go beyond answering questions and offer entertainment value.
Zuckerberg emphasized that the objective is to make the chatbots entertaining and engaging. NFL star Tom Brady, for example, will embody an AI character named ‘Bru,’ described as a “wisecracking sports debater.”
YouTube sensation MrBeast will take on the role of ‘Zach,’ a big brother figure known for his playful roasts.
Despite the progress, Zuckerberg acknowledged the limitations of these chatbots in terms of the questions they can answer. The rollout of these chatbots is expected to begin in the coming days, initially in the United States.
During the event, Zuckerberg also touched on the concept of the metaverse, a virtual world that has been a focal point of Meta’s investments.
The company introduced its new virtual reality headset, Quest 3, which is touted as the first “mainstream” mixed reality headset. Equipped with forward-facing cameras, the headset will support augmented reality features. Quest 3 is set to be available starting on October 10.
Meta’s dedication to the metaverse has come at a significant cost, with its VR division reporting losses of $21 billion since the beginning of 2022.
The introduction of Quest 3 comes after Apple’s entry into the high-end mixed reality hardware market with the Vision Pro earlier this year.
While Meta’s focus on VR has generated attention, its competitor, OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, has announced an upgrade to its ChatGPT chatbot.
The updated version now has the capability to browse the internet for real-time information, expanding its functionality beyond its previous data cut-off point in September 2021.
