Meta AI, Meta's AI-powered assistant for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and the online, can now speak more languages and create stylized selfies. And starting today, Meta AI users can forward inquiries to Meta's latest flagship AI model, Llama 3.1 405B, which the corporate says can handle more complex queries than the previous model that underpins Meta AI.
The query is whether or not the improvements shall be enough to enhance the general experience with Meta AI, which many reviewers, including TechCrunch's Devin Coldewey, found incredibly disappointing at launch. Early versions of Meta AI struggled with facts, figures and web search, and infrequently did not perform basic tasks like looking up recipes and airfares.
Llama 3.1 405B could potentially make a difference. Meta claims that the brand new model is especially well suited to math and programming questions, making it well-suited for math homework help, explaining scientific concepts, debugging code, etc.
However, there may be a catch. Meta AI users must manually upgrade to Llama 3.1 405B to make use of it, and so they are limited to a certain variety of queries per week before Meta AI mechanically switches to a less powerful model (Llama 3.1 70B).
Meta describes the Llama 3.1 405B integration as a “preview” for now.
Generative Selfies
In addition to Llama 3.1 405B, Meta AI has one other recent generative AI model that powers the selfie feature.
The model, called Imagine Yourself, creates images based on a photograph of an individual and a prompt like “Imagine me browsing” or “Imagine me on a beach vacation.” Imagine Yourself is obtainable in beta and will be accessed in Meta AI by typing “imagine” followed by anything that isn't NSFW.
Meta has not said what data was used to coach Imagine Yourself, but the corporate’s terms of service make it clear that Public posts and pictures are allowed on its platformsThis policy – and the complicated opt-out process – was not well received by all users.
Joining Imagine Yourself in Meta AI are recent editing tools that allow users so as to add, remove, change or edit objects, with prompts like “turn the cat right into a corgi.” Starting next month, Meta AI will get an “Edit with AI” button to bring up additional fine-tuning options. And in the approaching days, Meta AI users will see recent shortcuts that allow Meta AI-generated images to be shared in feeds, stories and comments in Meta apps, Meta says.
New languages and quest support
Meta AI can be replacing the voice command feature of the Meta Quest VR headset, with a rollout planned for next month within the U.S. and Canada in “experimental mode.” Users can use Meta AI with passthrough enabled to ask questions on things of their physical environment, Meta says, resembling “Look and tell me what top would go together with this outfit” while holding up a pair of shorts.
According to Meta, Meta AI is currently available in 22 countries – the newest additions are Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Cameroon. The assistant now supports French, German, Hindi, Hindi Romanized Script, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, and Meta guarantees that more languages will follow.
