Meta AI is getting a massive upgrade. On Thursday, the social media giant announced two new Llama 3 artificial intelligence (AI) models, the Llama 3 8B and 70B, which are said to offer improved capabilities compared to the predecessor. Alongside, the company also upgraded its native AI assistant with Llama 3 models. Meta AI can now respond more efficiently, generate images faster, and even animate images, as per the company. Accessibility of the chatbot is also being improved by integrating it into different interfaces. It is also being expanded to more countries.
In a newsroom post, the company said that Meta AI is now powered by Llama and can be used for free as long as a user has an account on any of its platforms. The social media giant announced the chatbot in Meta Connect 2023 and soon began adding it to Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in the US. The AI assistant was recently expanded to India and now the tech giant has revealed that it is expanding it to more regions. The countries where Meta AI is being rolled out include Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
While the AI assistant is getting better in terms of the efficiency of responses and image generation quality as a result of Llama 3 integration, Meta is also adding new capabilities as well as wider integration of the chatbot. On features, Meta AI will now be able to generate images in real-time. This means once you begin typing your prompt, you can see the AI generating an image. As you keep typing and describing the image better, the image also keeps changing based on the prompt. While this does make the generation speed faster, it also allows users to preview the image and make real-time changes for better results.
Another new feature is image animation. The tech giant is also offering image editing capabilities. If you do not like the generated image, you can ask the AI to make changes to it or iterate on it in a new style. Further, users will also be able to animate the image and turn it into GIF.
Meta is also making the chatbot available at more user touch-points. Users will now be able to find the AI assistant in the Facebook feed under posts. A small Meta AI logo with a couple of suggested queries will pop up and the user can ask questions regarding the topics shown in the video. It is also being integrated into search across all platforms. This will allow users to go to the search bar on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger and type a question, and the AI will answer it. Real-time events such as flight booking prices and stock market updates can also be queried. Notably, Meta’s AI uses both Google and Bing to show results, however, users cannot control which search engine it shows.
Finally, the social media giant has also launched a new meta.ai website where users can jump to have a conversation with the chatbot or ask it to solve a math problem or generate content. This new platform is likely for those who want to use the AI assistant but do not want to open their social media account for it, especially in a professional setting. Users will be able to save conversations here for future reference as well.