Meta has launched its free virtual assistant, Meta AI, for users in Australia across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
Meta AI is a free virtual assistant that Met said can help “answer questions, inspire creativity, research, plan a trip, write a photo caption and more”. It can be found across the company’s apps as a blue circle icon or by typing @meta ai within chats.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO at Meta, said in a video on Facebook that the tech company’s goal is to “build the world’s leading AI and make it available to everyone.”
He said that the virtual assistant AI has been upgraded with Llama 3, the company’s new AI model, which is being open-sourced. Zuckerberg said: “The bottom line is that we believe that Meta AI is now the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use.”
He noted that Meta AI has integrated real-time knowledge from Google and Bing into answers and that access to it across its apps is being made easier.
“We built into the search box that’s right at the top of WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger so anytime you have a question you can just ask it right there and we built a new website, Meta.AI, for using it from the web.”
Zuckerberg also noted that they are releasing new creation features. “Meta AI now creates animations and it now creates high quality images so fast that it actually generates and updates images for you in real time as you were typing,” he said in the video. This feature will first roll out in the US on WhatsApp and the Meta AI web experience.
He explained that the company is “investing massively” in building AI and that responsibly open sourcing its models is an important part of the company’s approach.
“The tech industry has shown over and over that open source leads to better safer and more secure products, faster innovation and a healthier market Beyond improving meta products these models have the potential to help unlock progress in fields like science, healthcare and more.”
William Easton, managing director of Meta Australia and New Zealand, said: “We’re excited to bring Meta AI, one of the world’s leading AI assistants to our Australian and New Zealand users across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.
“Built with Meta Llama 3, Meta AI will be available for free, so millions of people can use it to get things done and access real-time information, without having to leave the app they’re using. Australia and New Zealand are some of the first countries outside of the US to get access to Meta AI, and we can’t wait to see how it enhances people’s lives.”