Meta's New AI Features and Experiences

Introduction

Meta has recently announced a range of new AI features and experiences across its platforms, including WhatsApp Messenger, Instagram, and more. These innovative features are powered by advanced AI technologies and are designed to enhance your online interactions, making them more fun, creative, and immersive. In this blog, we will explore what these new AI features are, how they work, and why they are significant for the future of social connection and the metaverse.

AI Stickers

One of the new features introduced by Meta is AI stickers. This feature allows you to generate customized stickers for your chats and stories based on text prompts. For example, if you type "sticker happy birthday" or "sticker I love you," Meta's AI will create a unique sticker that matches your request in just seconds. You can use any words or phrases you want, and the AI will interpret them to produce high-quality stickers that you can share with your friends. This feature utilizes technology from Lama 2 and emu, Meta's latest models for text and image generation. Lama 2 is a large language model capable of generating text and code in response to prompts, while emu is a foundational model for image generation that can create realistic images from text or sketches. By combining these two models, Meta's AI can turn your text prompts into multiple stickers to choose from. This feature is rolling out to select English language users over the next month on WhatsApp Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook Stories.

Restyle and Backdrop

Two exciting features coming soon to Instagram are Restyle and Backdrop. These features allow you to transform your images and even co-create AI-generated images with your friends. Restyle enables you to reimagine your images by applying visual styles that you describe. For instance, you can type "watercolor" or "collage from magazines and newspapers" to change the look and feel of your image. Backdrop, on the other hand, changes the scene or background of your image based on descriptive prompts. You can type "put me in front of a Sublime Aurora Borealis" or "surrounded by puppies" to create an image of yourself in a different setting. These features also leverage the technology from emu and learnings from Meta's segment anything model, which can separate the foreground and background of any image.

Meta's AI Assistant

Meta has introduced a new AI assistant that you can chat with just like a person on WhatsApp Messenger, Instagram, and soon on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Quest 3. This AI assistant is powered by a custom model that incorporates technology from Lama 2 and Meta's latest large language model research. It can provide you with real-time information and generate photorealistic images from your text prompts in seconds. For example, if you're planning a hiking trip with your friends in a group chat, you can ask Meta's AI assistant for suggestions on where to go, what to pack, and even what the weather will be like. Additionally, you can ask it to create a digital merit badge for your group based on your preferences. Meta's AI assistant can also answer general knowledge questions, search the web using Microsoft's Bing search engine, make recommendations, tell jokes, settle debates, and provide learning opportunities. This AI assistant is available on WhatsApp Messenger, Instagram, and other Meta platforms.

AI Personalities

Meta is launching 28 more AI personalities in beta, each with unique interests and personalities. Some of these AI personalities are played by cultural icons and influencers such as Snoop Dogg, Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner, Naomi Osaka, and more. You can chat with these AI personalities on WhatsApp Messenger and Instagram, and each AI has its own profile that provides information about their hobbies, passions, and quirks. For example, Snoop Dogg plays an AI named Dungeon Master, who loves role-playing games and fantasy novels. Naomi Osaka plays an AI named Tamika, who is into anime and manga. You can engage in conversations with these AI personalities about their interests or any other topic you want to discuss. They might even surprise you with fun facts or trivia related to their areas of interest. However, it's important to note that these AI personalities are still in beta and may not have access to the most up-to-date information yet. Currently, they are limited to pre-2023 information. Meta plans to integrate search functionality into them soon, so they can access real-time web results. These AI personalities are currently available only in the United States, but Meta aims to expand their availability to more regions and languages in the future.

AI Studio Platform

Meta has also introduced the AI Studio platform, an open platform that allows both coders and non-coders to build their own AI models. This platform enables individuals and developers to create AI models that reflect their brand's values and improve customer service experiences. AI Studio platform can be used to create AI models for messaging services like WhatsApp Messenger and Instagram. For example, businesses can create an AI model that represents their brand and answers customer queries, while individuals can create an AI model that represents their personal brand and engages with their fans. Furthermore, AI Studio platform provides a way to experiment with creating AI characters with different personalities and interests. Meta is also developing a Sandbox that will be released in the coming year, allowing anyone to explore and experiment with creating their own AI models. As Meta's universe of AI models continues to grow and evolve, this Sandbox will be integrated into the metaverse, offering the opportunity to build AI models that achieve an even greater level of realism, embodiment, and connectedness.

Conclusion

Meta's new AI features and experiences are set to revolutionize how we interact online. The introduction of AI stickers, Restyle, Backdrop, AI assistant, AI personalities, and the AI Studio platform provides users with exciting new ways to express themselves, enhance their images, engage with AI personalities, and even create their own AI models. These advancements in AI technology demonstrate Meta's commitment to improving social connections and creating immersive experiences. Whether you're a fan of customized stickers, image transformation, interactive AI personalities, or building your own AI, Meta's new AI features offer something for everyone. Stay tuned for the rollout of these features and prepare to embrace the future of social connection and the metaverse.