Meta’s AI Bots May Increase Addiction To Its Platforms

Date: September 28, 2023

Meta has introduced a variety of new AI features to its social media platforms to help boost productivity as well as addiction to them.

Meta owns one of the world's most engaging social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. In the recent Annual Connect Conference, the company announced two new products: the mixed reality headset and the smart glasses made in collaboration with Ray-Ban. However, the key highlight of the event was the introduction of a variety of AI features that may make all of its social media platforms much more creative, expressive, and dangerously addictive. 

AI is still integrating with our lives, with most people leaning towards using AI by will. The new Llama 2-based AI products include assistants, chatbots, and text & image generators. Llama 2 is the powerhouse of Meta’s open-access AI models, and Bing is the source of the latest access points for connecting it to the internet. Let’s see what Meta plans to elevate our experience across the Metaverse.

AI Assistant, Backed by Bing

Using Llama 2, Meta claims to have developed specialized datasets that can make the assistants have a much more conversational and friendly tone with the users. “Behind Meta AI, we built an orchestrator. And it can seamlessly detect a user’s intent from a prompt and route it to the right extension,” said Ahmad Al-Dahle, VP of GenAI at Meta, on Wednesday. The AI assistant will roll out on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram in beta version in the USA. It will be the leading support tool for VR headsets and Ray-Ban smart glasses in later stages. The AI assistant will bring the latest information with accurate intent to the users with Bing’s web access support.

AI Chatbots As Your Favorite Celebrities

This concept is nothing new in the realm of AI. But the final product that Meta will launch soon can be much stronger and more efficient than other products available. The AI Personalities will copy and mimic your chosen celebrity's tone, conversation style, slang, and specific knowledge.

• Football star Tom Brady will be used as a character called “Bru” who can talk to you about sports.
• Naomi Osaka, a tennis player, is featured as “Tamika” to discuss anything in Manga.
• YouTube personality Mr. Beast is playing “Zach” as a funny guy to some extent at the least.
• MMA fighter Israel Adesanya is showing up as Luiz to talk about MMA.
• Model Kendall Jenner is showing up as “Billie” to play the role of a big sister type.

AI Creator & Business Studio

For people who want their businesses to talk to customers creatively and efficiently, Meta has planned a creator studio that can generate personalized chatbots for them to deploy. These AI chatbots will reflect the brand vision, personality, and value proposition. Mark Zuckerberg clarified that the use cases of these chatbots are primarily for customer-facing businesses, like eCommerce and customer support.

AI Studio will be available for creators and businesses by the beginning of next year. Creators will gain the power to build their virtual presence across all Meta apps. The control of these chatbots will be in the creator’s hands, and they will be responsible for the interactions solely.

AI Stickers Powered By Emu

Now, users can generate their stickers using just text prompts. From a happy raccoon on a scooter to an angry young man proposing, it will elevate the creative expression manifold. Simply generate any sticker in seconds and post them on WhatsApp, Messenger, or even Instagram stories. 

People send hundreds of millions of stickers to express things in chats every day. And every chat is slightly different, and you want to express subtly different emotions. But today, we only have a fixed number — but with Emu, now you can just type in what you want.

- Zuckerberg

AI Editor

Another addition to the creator community’s support is the AI editor, which will let them restyle their photos with a single prompt and even change the background to something they prefer. Meta claims that this editor will reduce the image editing time and enhance the creativity expertise. 

Meta also clarified that the AI-generated images will have a clear indicator to differentiate them from real-world images. It said the internal team is also building invisible and visible indicators.

The AI world is coming closer, faster than we expected. From people exploring new AI tools to enhance their imagination, productivity, and creativity, we are evolving towards involving AI in our daily lives. But it is also a safety concern for users as these attractive features can make the platforms even more addictive. And, the sole responsibility of landing in those addictions will fall on the users only.