There has been much talk about Meta AI, the advanced AI assistant developed by the tech giant, both positive and negative. The company began rolling out features earlier this year in a bid to gain ground in the artificial intelligence race. Meta AI is already available in several countries across its platforms—Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram—and continues to launch new capabilities.
Built with the large language model (LLM) Llama 3, Meta claims it is one of the “world’s leading AI assistants” and is already available for free to many users worldwide. The assistant is capable of complex reasoning, following instructions, visualizing ideas, and solving nuanced problems. The company first announced the program at last year’s Connect, partnering with Microsoft to integrate the Bing search engine.
It is starting to go global with more features. Meta AI can be used on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger to complete tasks, learn, create, and connect.
The assistant also integrates various capabilities such as researching topics, exploring interests, receiving how-to advice, and learning new hobbies. Its latest image generation technology can spark inspiration, animate creations, and realize creative visions.
@MetaAI can be used in group chats on Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp to share recommendations on how to organize a group project or inspire ideas for dinner party recipes or even a trip itinerary.
To access Meta AI, visit www.meta.ai in your browser and click “Ask Meta AI anything…” at the bottom of the page. After typing your question and clicking the up arrow, you can choose to log in with your Facebook account or continue without logging in. It might take a moment for it to generate an answer.
Users can leave feedback on the responses by using the thumbs up or thumbs down icons, or copy an answer by clicking the copy icon. Clicking on an example question can also start a conversation. To begin a new conversation, select “New conversation” on the left sidebar. If you’re logged in with a Facebook account, your history with Meta AI will be saved, so you can revisit old conversations by clicking them on the sidebar.
If you opt not to log in, your history will be lost once you leave the site and will be automatically deleted, with the content deletion process potentially taking up to 90 days, and additional time for removing information from backups and recovery systems.
Be aware that Meta AI explains that its responses might not always be accurate or appropriate and should not be relied upon for important decisions. Meta may also collect and use data such as your text prompts and responses to enhance its AI models.
Users can make the most of Meta AI on their various apps in different ways.
On WhatsApp Web, you can access the feature by opening WhatsApp Web in your browser and looking for the dedicated Meta AI icon, a hollow circle with blue color, at the top of your screen.
In a WhatsApp group chat, you can interact with the assistant by typing “@” in the message field, selecting “Meta AI” from the options, typing your question, and sending it to get informative responses directly in the chat.
Users can also test out Meta’s Imagine feature, where you can see an image as you start typing, and it’ll change with every few letters added, so you can watch as the system bring your creativity to life. Meta states: “The images generated are also now sharper and higher quality, with a better ability to include text in images.”
On Instagram, start by opening or starting a chat in Direct Messages, summon the AI by typing “@”, and then send your question or request. Meta AI will then analyze and respond within the chat.
For Facebook, engage Meta AI directly within an interesting post on your feed by clicking an “Ask Meta AI” button or similar option, ask your question to learn more about the post’s content, and receive answers directly within the interface.
If you find a post you’re interest in, you can ask it for more information right from the post. For example, if you see a photo of Machu Picchu in Peru, you can ask the chatbot what time of year is best to avoid crowds there.
In Messenger, start the process by typing “@” in a new or existing chat, send your inquiry or task, and Meta AI will respond in the chat, offering recommendations, completing tasks, or adding an interactive element to your conversation.
Let’s say you’re planning Spring Break in your Messenger group chat. Using search in Messenger you can ask Meta AI to find flights to Florida from New York and figure out the best beaches to check out – all within the Messenger app.
Meta AI in English is only available in a dozen countries outside of the U.S. This includes Australia, Canada, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
It appears that Meta AI cannot be switched off, despite some users looking for the option. A Meta spokesperson confirmed to ReadWrite: “Meta AI aims to be a helpful assistant and is in the search bar to assist with your questions. You can’t disable it from this experience, but you can search how you normally would engage with a variety of results.”
Users can still use the search bars by typing in words and clicking on the text results that appear below, rather than clicking the blue send icon at the right end of the bar, which activates an AI chat. On Meta’s own Facebook page, users have urged for opt-out options.
Featured image: Meta / Canva
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