If integrating Meta AI into WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger was not enough, Meta Platform is rolling out a stand-alone AI app to take on OpenAI’s ChatGPT. As expected, the new AI assistant offering will run on Meta’s Llama AI model.
The fresh idea in the app is the Discover feed, which adds an AI element to social media. Here, you’ll see a feed of interactions with Meta AI that other people, including your friends on Instagram and Facebook, have opted to share.
You can like, comment on, share, or remix shared AI posts into your own. The idea is to show “people what they can do with it”.
The new app goes head-to-head with AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, xAI’s Grok and Google’s Gemini.
Meta launched an AI chatbot in September 2023, pitching it as a generative AI-powered digital assistant that can offer responses and create images based on user prompts within its existing apps.
In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he believes 2025 “is going to be the year when a highly intelligent and personalised AI assistant reaches more than one billion people, and I expect Meta AI to be that leading AI assistant”. Till January, Meta AI had roughly 700 million monthly active users, Meta finance chief Susan Li said at the time. That was up from 600 million in December.
Meta’s AI app is different from existing AI assistants because it can “[draw] on information you’ve already chosen to share on Meta products”, the company said, such as your profile and the content you engage with. The personalised responses will be available in the US and Canada at first. You can also offer Meta more information about yourself to remember for future conversations with its AI. For example, if you tell the AI that you are lactose intolerant, it will remember the fact while recommending a meal during your next vacation.
Mathures Paul