Amid AI Mania: Meta Upgrades Social Apps With Big Injection of Artificial Intelligence

On Dec. 6, the firm formerly known as Facebook announced a raft of AI-focused updates to its social media and messaging platforms.  

“We’re testing more than 20 new ways generative AI can improve your experiences across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp,” the firm said in a blog post. 

It is also upgrading Meta AI, its chatbot, and virtual assistant by “making it more helpful,” with more detailed responses and more accurate summaries of search results.

Today, we’re sharing updates to our core AI experiences and new capabilities you can discover across our family of apps. Read all about it here: https://t.co/9CjalsAVKE pic.twitter.com/uQ4mUwJCxi

— Meta (@Meta) December 6, 2023

Meta to Identify AI Imagery  

Meta’s Images and Reels platforms have also had an upgraded injection of AI. It is integrating Reels recommendations into Meta AI chats to showcase visual information.

The firm also released a free standalone AI image generator website called “Imagine with Meta AI“.

Meta used 1.1 billion publicly visible Facebook and Instagram images to train the AI model, which can render a novel image from a written prompt.

Facebook also gets a dose of AI with the model working under the hood to help users create and share content. It will also be integrated into Marketplace to assist buyers and sellers. 

Meta also intends to flag images that have been created with AI by watermarking them. The watermarks will not be visible to users but can be identified by its AI model. 

“In the coming weeks, we’ll add invisible watermarking to the image with Meta AI experience for increased transparency and traceability.”

The announcement was technically vague and did not divulge how the AI model or the company would be harvesting and using its user’s personal data. 

Moreover, the government of Thailand recently threatened to ban Facebook over its failure to protect users from scams that have flooded the platform. 

Google Launches Gemini 

Also on Dec. 6, tech giant Google announced the launch of its long-awaited AI model Gemini. 

The company claims that Gemini is far more advanced than its competitors, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT powered by GTP4. 

In addition to text, Gemini is multimodal, which means it can handle images, audio, and video, which goes beyond the limitations of its rivals. 

Introducing Gemini, Google’s largest and most capable AI model. 🧵 #GeminiAI https://t.co/T0tIw9HQyO

— Google (@Google) December 6, 2023

Gemini comes in three versions or “sizes” depending on the intended usage and market. It is being integrated into Google’s AI assistant, Bard, and will be available on its flagship smartphone.

The firm added that Gemini will also be deployed across its products and services, such as Chrome, Ads, and Search, next year.