Meta to Add Generative AI to Apps, CEO Zuckerberg Reveals

During Meta's Q1 earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company's plan to integrate generative AI into its apps, stating that the company sees "an opportunity to introduce AI agents to billions of people in ways that will be useful and meaningful."

While he didn't provide specific details on how this will be done, Zuckerberg revealed that Meta is exploring the integration of chat experiences in WhatsApp and Messenger, visual creation tools for posts in Facebook and Instagram, and ads, with plans to extend this to video and multi-modal experiences in the future. He also hinted that Meta's generative AI products will be released in the coming months.

Despite Meta's focus on the metaverse and recent rebrand, the company has spent the past few quarters building the necessary infrastructure for AI features. Zuckerberg assured investors that Meta is no longer behind in this area and that generative AI will be integrated into all of the company's products.

Generative AI has become a popular trend in the tech industry, with Google, Meta, and smaller players like Snap racing to build competing applications. While Meta released an AI language model called LLaMA earlier this year, it has yet to debut a product that rivals OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Zuckerberg hinted at how generative AI could speed up WhatsApp's customer support business, stating that once tens of millions of AI agents are acting on behalf of businesses, more businesses will be able to afford to engage in chat.

Although Meta is pivoting towards AI, the company isn't giving up on the metaverse, according to Zuckerberg. He stated that the narrative that Meta is moving away from the metaverse is "not accurate," as evidenced by the planned release of the next Quest VR headset later this year. Meta's Reality Labs division reported a net loss of $4 billion last quarter, and the company expects operating losses to increase year over year in 2023.