While tech giant Meta is ramping up AI integration across its platforms including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, it is also taking a different approach in reintroducing the Metaverse.

First introduced in 2021, when Facebook rebranded to Meta to focus on technology, the Metaverse gained traction and inspired other players to join the bandwagon and develop their own “Metaverse.” became. Despite the initial hype, the idea seems to have slowly died out, as some major players have exited, including Meta, which saw Reality Labs post a $13.7 billion operating loss in 2022. It is. Despite spending over $100 billion, the company shifted its focus to AI following recent advances in the field. I am involved in research and development of the Metaverse.

But the company doesn’t seem to be giving up on immersive technology, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing an improved Metaverse at this year’s MetaConnect. Additionally, Meta introduces: New AI experience There are also mixed reality gadgets like the Quest 3 and Ray-Ban smart glasses that can capture images and record videos.

Mark Zuckerberg introduced the revamped Metaverse as a union of the physical world and digital space. This includes the familiar His 2D experience and the fully immersive His 3D experience.

In an interview with Lex Fridman, Zuckerberg explained the important role AI will have to play in the Metaverse. The company is ditching cartoonish avatars in favor of more photorealistic avatars in the Metaverse, and the CEO says a world where people stick to photorealism is possible.

Meta combines an AI assistant with Ray-Ban Meta VR glasses to allow users to interact with the digital and physical worlds in real-time via text and voice. For example, a user might ask for information about a piece of art or instructions on how to fix a leaky faucet.

New AI features in Meta

In what has been an exciting and busy year in the AI ​​space, Meta is introducing new AI experiences and features to the platform. This ranges from text-to-image generative models, chatbots based on celebrity personalities, AI-generated stickers, Instagram image editing tools, and finally his AI conversational chatbot from Meta. This new feature leverages Meta’s large-scale language model Llama 2.

Meta releases a modern AI assistant called Meta AI that can access real-time information from the web through Bing search. The assistant will be available on his WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, and will also be rolled out to the Quest 3 VR headset and Ray Ban Meta smart glasses in the future. In addition, Meta’s latest text-to-image generation feature called Emu has been integrated into the Assistant, allowing users to generate images within chats.

In addition to Meta AI, the company is introducing 28 new AIs based on various cultural icons and influencers. “You can think of these AIs as new characters, each with their own backstory,” said Mehta. Each new AI will have an interactive Instagram and Facebook profile. These are currently available in text, with the addition of voice functionality coming next year, Meta says.

New AI stickers coming to English users this month will allow users to generate customized stickers for their chats and stories on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook Stories. This feature uses an emu to generate images.

Meta is introducing the AI ​​Studio platform, which enables creators and businesses to create AI on Messenger and WhatsApp. Creator AI will now be able to extend virtual presence across Meta’s apps. The company is also introducing a sandbox, which is also included in Metaverse, to allow anyone to experiment with AI.