Meta is testing its Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot Meta AI for its users in India and parts of Africa. The company will be deploying the chatbot across its products, including Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. 

This move signals how Meta plans to tap massive user bases across its various apps to scale its AI offerings. The social media giant has been scrambling to roll out more AI services in the wake of big AI moves from other major tech companies. 

Instagram has made Meta AI available through the service's direct messaging feature. The user can access the feature by tapping the Meta AI icon in the search bar and interacting directly with the chatbot. This feature is similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, wherein it functions as a general-purpose assistant that can answer a range of questions, including real-time information.

Meta recently began testing the AI chatbot, and it is now available in testing in select markets, including the US. India, home to more than 500 million Facebook and WhatsApp users, is the company's largest market.

In a statement, they reconfirmed that their generative AI-powered experiences are under development in varying phases, and they are testing a range of them publicly in a limited capacity. 

Meta launched Meta AI, its general-purpose assistant, in September 2023. The AI chatbot is designed to answer user queries directly within chat and offer them the ability to generate photorealistic images from text prompts.

The company separately confirmed earlier this week that it will launch Llama 3, the next version of its open-source LLM, within a month. 

Sources:

Meta

Tech Crunch

Economic Times

Image: Unsplash