Meta merges teams working on AI, Snap launches ChatGPT-powered chatbot

As artificial intelligence keeps dominating the headlines largely thanks to the massive success of ChatGPT, companies are exploring how they can level up their products by integrating this technology, and social media giants Meta and Snap Inc. want to get ahead in the growing AI competition.

On Monday, Meta’s founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that they’re forming a top-level product group to fasten the adoption of generative AI across the company. He said they’re merging various teams working on generative AI into a one big team that will explore how they can apply the technology into all of its products, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. 

‘’In the short term, we’ll focus on building creative and expressive tools,’’ Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. ‘’Over the longer term, we’ll focus on developing AI personas that can help people in a variety of ways.’’

The news comes just two days after Meta announced the release of LLaMa, its new ‘’state-of-the-art’’ AI large language model that aims to support researchers.

Snapchat-owner Snap Inc. also started the new week with the launch of its AI chatbot named ‘’My AI’’, powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The company said that the new chatbot is now available for Snapchat+ users, its premium plan that has more than 1 million subscribers.

‘’My AI can recommend birthday gift ideas for your BFF, plan a hiking trip for a long weekend, suggest a recipe for dinner, or even write a haiku about cheese for your cheddar-obsessed pal,’’ the company said in a blog post.

‘’As with all AI-powered chatbots, My AI is prone to hallucination and can be tricked into saying just about anything,’’ it warned. ‘’Please be aware of its many deficiencies and sorry in advance! All conversations with My AI will be stored and may be reviewed to improve the product experience. Please do not share any secrets with My AI and do not rely on it for advice.’’

Last week, Microsoft also said that it’s bringing ChatGPT-powered Bing and Microsoft Edge apps to Android and iOS users.