Meta reportedly launched its Meta AI on Thursday, 18th January, rolling out the service in seven African countries including Nigeria.
According to Meta, the latest innovation is built with Llama 3 technology which enables a smarter, faster, and relatable artificial intelligence for users.
The recent move by Meta highlights the ongoing global AI frenzy, which is seeing top global tech companies like Samsung, Google, OpenAi and now Meta adopt new strategies to service their customers through AI.
By extension, Meta’s latest AI feature also allows WhatsApp audience use the service directly from their WhatsApp platforms.
The feature appears as a chatbot on users’ WhatsApp interface, giving them every day free access to the AI chatbot within the app. Moreso, the chatbot also allows users to generate realistic images.
Here are some cool features found on this AI.
Chat buddy: Meta AI steps in as your engaging chat buddy. Discuss anything under the sun, from the latest movies to philosophical musings. It’s like having a well-informed friend who’s always ready for a stimulating conversation.
Assistant: Meta AI functions as your personal WhatsApp assistant. Just like ChatGPT, users can fire away any query, and get informative responses within the app.
While Meta AI is still under development, it has the potential to be a real competitor, offering a convenient knowledge source right where you chat.
Summerize with Ruby: When you are off WhatsApp for a while, Meta AI, powered by Ruby AI, comes to the rescue.
Users can request a summary of the group chat, and get caught up on everything they missed. No more feeling lost or left out – Meta AI ensures you are always in the loop.
AI Realistic Images: Meta AI boasts an incredible ability to generate realistic images based on your commands. Users just need to describe the image and Meta AI develops realistic images using the description.
Larry Frank, a foremost blogger and founder of Snapiro, speaking on the innovation described it as a ‘killer’ while also sitting its free-to-use feature.
“The amount of traffic bloggers get from search engine has really been affected by different features added by Google and invention of AI chat bots, but this one is a killer. We will all have it for free on our palms,” said Frank.
The explosive growth of AI on platforms like WhatsApp is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is a testament to the appeal of this technology, perfectly suited for our tech-driven world. Imagine a world where chats become smarter, conversations more engaging, and information readily available at fingertips– that’s the promise of AI assistants like the one being integrated into WhatsApp.
But this very convenience sparks a crucial question: is our privacy at stake? Here is where the “too good to be free” caveat comes in. Social media platforms have a checkered history when it comes to data protection.
“This is too good to be free. WhatsApp is not monetized, at least to the best of our knowledge,” said Larry Frank. This gets us to wonder, are there other ways Meta make money from WhatsApp?”
“Do they sell our data? If they do, then this AI thing will help them know us even more, and aid the privacy business.”
While WhatsApp boasts end-to-end encryption for messages, the AI itself might be a Trojan Horse. Could this seemingly helpful assistant be gathering even more data about our preferences, habits, and social circles? This data could then be used for targeted advertising across the entire Meta ecosystem, making their profiles on users even more detailed.
Social media platforms currently operate in a Wild West of data practices. User information is often collected with vague terms of service and minimal transparency.
Strong data protection legislation would act as a digital fortress, establishing clear guidelines for how social media companies can gather, handle, and distribute user data.
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