A swathe of new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools have started to roll out to Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram in the UK.
While these features have been available in the United States for some time, the launch was delayed in the UK over concerns from regulators about parent company Meta’s plans to train the Artificial Intelligence models on public posts shared by everyday users on the platforms. European Union countries have also raised similar fears about data privacy ...and Meta remains silent about an EU launch for its AI tools.
You'll be able to ask questions via a written prompt, voice, or send a picture to more information, creative assistance or inspiration. Dubbed Meta AI, it can also generate entirely-new images based on your suggestions, or make edits to your existing snaps.
In the UK, the tools will initially be available inside Facebook and Instagram, with WhatsApp likely to follow in the coming weeks and months.
Meta AI is powered by Llama 3, the latest generation of large language model (LLM) from the Californian company, which is run by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg META PRESS OFFICE The integration varies slightly between apps, but in most cases clicking on the search box within WhatsApp or Instagram will now display an iridescent rainbow circle with a prompt saying, “Ask Meta AI or Search.”
Searching for a specific message, contact, or group will work the same as it always has within WhatsApp, but any prompts or questions will generate a custom response written in plain English generated by Llama 3. In WhatsApp group chats, if you use @Meta AI in a message with a question or prompt, the chatbot will respond directly within the group.
Meta says the AI is only able to read messages with the @Meta AI command.
Meta AI can dream-up new images and animated GIFs from a written prompt, with audio and video on the roadmap for the technology in the coming months, Meta has teased META PRESS OFFICEUnlike Instagram and Messenger, WhatsApp users will also be able to use Llama 3 to generate images from a written prompt — a response to the popular DALL-E text-to-image AI system developed by OpenAI. This can be done from the search bar or in a one-on-one chat with the chatbot, which is now available in your contacts.
WhatsApp users will need to use the word "imagine" at the start of the message to kickstart the image-creation tool. It can be used to dream-up still pictures as well as animated GIFs that you won't find anywhere else.
Signs of progress towards a UK release emerged last month, when Meta — the parent company that owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and the Meta Quest VR headsets — confirmed it had reached an agreement on the issue with the UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and that it would start training its models on posts from UK users who do not raise an objection to their data being used.
At the time, Sir Nick Clegg – the former deputy prime minister who is now president of global affairs at Meta – said the move meant Meta AI tools could be introduced in the UK “much sooner”.
In a blog post announcing the UK rollout, Meta has now confirmed the technology will also be coming to its Ray-Ban Meta smartglasses, as well as to a number of other countries in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia either immediately or in the coming months. There was, however, still no word on an EU rollout, where the company remains in deadlock with regulators.
"We’re sharing our plan to open up access to Meta AI in more countries and languages throughout the rest of the year," Meta said. "We’ll be rolling out Meta AI to 21 new locales around the world, starting today with the United Kingdom, Brazil and more countries in Latin America and Asia. It’s coming soon to the Middle East for the first time, too.
“This will help people get answers to their questions, brainstorm content, and bring their ideas to life in places where they can easily share the results with their local network and our broader global community. Meta AI is conveniently located in the apps you know and love, like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Just tap on the Meta AI icon or type ‘@Meta AI’ in a group chat to use it with friends.
“You can even use it on the web at meta.ai.”
The technology giant has hoped to place itself at the centre of the AI arms race by quickly introducing its tools across its popular social media platforms to users free of charge, with the aim of establishing itself as the most popular AI chatbot firm, taking on the likes of ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
There's no word on when Meta AI will be coming to Facebook and Instagram accounts in the European Union
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“Following this gradual rollout, Meta AI will be available in 43 countries and a dozen languages,” Meta said.
“That means more people than ever will be able to use Meta AI to dive deep on topics that spark their interest, get helpful how-tos and find inspiration for art projects, home decor, OOTDs (outfit of the day) and more. In fact, Meta AI is already on track to become the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year with almost 500 million active users monthly.”
Additional Reporting By Martyn Landi, PA Technology Correspondent
