Meta’s supercharged AI assistant is taking over its apps across the world

The battle for AI supremacy between ChatGPT and Gemini just turned into a three-way race as Meta has unveiled a significantly upgraded version of its AI assistant. The new-and-improved Meta AI, powered by the cutting-edge Llama 3 language model, is boldly proclaimed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to be “now the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use.”

Meta first introduced Meta AI last year, but it was limited to the US, and its capabilities were not on par with those of competitors like ChatGPT and Gemini. However, the integration of the Llama 3 model, also announced today, represents a seemingly quantum leap for Meta’s AI. Benchmark tests conducted by the company indicate that, with Llama 3 at its core, Meta AI has the potential to outperform other top-tier AI models, particularly in areas like translation, dialogue generation, and complex reasoning.

The overhauled Meta AI is now directly accessible through the search bars within Facebook, Instagram (DMs page), WhatsApp, and Messenger. Plus, you can access it at a new standalone website, meta.ai. It can search the web for you, provide recommendations for restaurants, flights, and more, or clarify complex concepts. On Facebook, Meta AI can also interact with your feed, allowing you to ask questions about content you see, like the best time to catch the Northern Lights after viewing a stunning photo of them.

I could even ask it for tailored content like fitness reels or comedy videos, with Meta AI curating a 5-video feed for me in those cases. Meta has included many prompts under the search bar on Facebook and Instagram to help us get the most out of Meta AI’s abilities. Thankfully, we can still use the search bars for regular searches for accounts and hashtags.

From what I could see so far, Meta AI’s answers are not as nuanced and detailed as what Gemini would give me for similar questions, but it could benefit from two key strengths. First, it’s seamlessly embedded within Meta’s popular apps — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger — giving their billions of users convenient access to the AI assistant. Secondly, Meta AI isn’t tied to one search engine; it openly uses both Google and Bing to process queries, removing potential bias toward either company’s algorithms.

One of the most intriguing parts of Meta AI is its Imagine image generator. This feature first appeared within WhatsApp a few months ago and allowed users to create AI-generated images based on text descriptions. Since then, it has expanded to Instagram and Facebook.

Starting today, WhatsApp beta users and those using Meta AI’s desktop website in the US can try out an even more advanced version of Imagine. This version generates images in real-time while you type, with the image updating as you add more details, really demonstrating how far generative AI has come.

Currently, Meta AI works in English and is rolling out to many countries outside the US, including Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, with more on the way.