General Availability of Meta AI
In the recent technews, Meta has expanded the availability of its Llama-3-powered AI chatbot, Meta AI, to all users in India. This rollout comes after a period of testing during India's general elections. Previously, Meta AI was accessible to select users across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook since April. While the chatbot was officially released in over a dozen countries shortly after, its launch in India was delayed due to the elections.
Key points:
Languages Supported: Currently, Meta AI supports only English.
Platforms: Available on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook.
Access: Users can interact with Meta AI through the search bar in Meta apps or via the meta.ai website.
Functionality and Features
Meta AI offers functionalities similar to other popular AI chatbots like OpenAIâs ChatGPT, Googleâs Gemini, and Anthropicâs Claude. Users can leverage Meta AI for a variety of tasks including:
Daily Assistance: Suggesting recipes, planning workouts, writing emails, and summarizing text.
Social Media Integration:
On Instagram, it can recommend Reels based on user search queries.
On Facebook, it provides contextual prompts related to posts. For example, seeing a photo of the aurora borealis may prompt Meta AI to suggest the best times and places to view the northern lights.
Biases and Model Improvements
There have been noted biases in Meta AI's image generation, especially in depicting Indian men and traditional Indian houses. In May, TechCrunch highlighted issues such as the tendency to add turbans to images of Indian men and consistently generating images of old-school Indian houses with vibrant colors and styled roofs. Meta has acknowledged these issues and stated that ongoing updates and improvements are being made to the models to address such biases.
Noteworthy statements:
Meta's Response: "This is a new technology, and it may not always return the response we intend, which is the same for all generative AI systems. Since we launched, weâve constantly released updates and improvements to our models, and weâre continuing to work on making them better," a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Integration with WhatsApp and Group Chats
With a substantial user base in India, Meta AI is now available to 500 million WhatsApp users, along with millions using other Meta apps. On WhatsApp, users can chat with Meta AI individually or utilize the chatbot in group chats for collaborative activities such as planning trips or deciding on movies to watch.
Highlights:
Privacy Considerations: Meta AI doesn't have the context of group conversations beyond the text used when mentioning or replying to the chatbot.
User Control: Although it's not possible to turn off or hide Meta AI functionality, users can choose to engage in searches without invoking the chatbot.
The rollout of Meta AI in India comes shortly after Google released its Gemini app for Android users in India, supporting nine local languages.