Mondays rumors turned out to be true, Meta announced at its Connect event on Wednesday that it will release a line of digital personalities built on the company’s freshly announced Meta AI chatbot platform. What could possibly go wrong?
Meta AI is a new genAI assistant that will span the company’s various properties including WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram (and arriving shortly on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Quest 3). User will be able to interact with it using natural language prompts. The AI is built on a custom model derived from Meta’s LLaMA 2 LLM and will pull real-time information from the web using Microsoft Bing.
What’s more, the company is also rolling out 28 (!!!) chatbot “characters” meant to address specific niche interests, whether those are specific sports, media, or genre choices. These personalities will be voiced by a variety of modern influencers and celebrities:
Charli D’Amelio as Coco, Dance enthusiast
Chris Paul as Perry, Pro golfer helping you perfect your stroke
Dwyane Wade as Victor, Ironman triathlete motivating you to be your best self
Izzy Adesanya as Luiz, Showy MMA prospect who can back up his trash talk
Kendall Jenner as Billie, No-BS, ride-or-die companion
LaurDIY as Dylan, Quirky DIY and Craft expert and companion for Gen Z
MrBeast as Zach, The big brother who will roast you — because he cares
Naomi Osaka as Tamika, Anime-obsessed Sailor Senshi in training
Paris Hilton as Amber, Detective partner for solving whodunnits
Raven Ross as Angie, Workout class queen who balances fitness with meditation
Roy Choi as Max, Seasoned sous chef for culinary tips and tricks
Sam Kerr as Sally, Free-spirited friend who’ll tell you when to take a deep breath
Snoop Dogg as Dungeon Master, Choose your own adventure with the Dungeon Master
Tom Brady as Bru, Wisecracking sports debater who pulls no punches
The initial batch of personalities will be available to US users starting today, with more performances coming from Bear Grylls, Chloe Kim, Josh Richards and others in the coming weeks.
Since the release of ChatGPT last November, Meta has been relatively slow to release a generative AI chatbot of its own, at least compared to competitors like Google and Microsoft. Instead, Meta has kept its focus on the LLaMA platform, its open-source large language model designed for commercial use, as well as a host of AI-enhanced, multimodal tools.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.