artificial intelligence
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The Meta boss’ strategy is supported by more than $13 billion in profits recorded in the second quarter.
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– Facebook continues to strengthen its artificial intelligence algorithms.
On cloud nine, Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc.), took advantage of his very good second-quarter results, revealed yesterday, to confirm his ambitions in artificial intelligence. “Meta AI, our artificial intelligence-based assistant, is well on its way to being the most used by the end of the year,” boasted the big boss. Bolstered by revenues up 22% to $39 billion, and net profit soaring to $13.5 billion (+73%), its appetite for conquest is based on many assets. “Starting with its formidable installed base of 3.2 billion users familiar with its favorite applications, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp”, underlines Stéphane Roder, founder of the AI Builders firm and author of the Practical Guide to Artificial Intelligence in Business (Eyrolles).
Also read: Meta: this chatbot will be able to talk to your friends on Instagram for you
Yet until very recently, most Facebook users didn’t even realize that their favorite social network was using artificial intelligence, and for one purpose: to keep them glued to their screens for as long as possible. It’s thanks to its AI-powered recommendation algorithms that Meta has managed to feed their Facebook news feed or Instagram feed with targeted and personalized content. Last year, the average time spent each day on Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook reached 147 minutes, almost half an hour more than in 2018. A boon for Mark Zuckerberg’s business. The Meta big boss had no trouble convincing his advertisers to broadcast more and more ads on his platforms, an activity that today contributes to 98% of his revenue.
Like ChatGPT, Meta AI has an answer for everything
But the Californian giant recently took a new step by offering free access, starting at the end of April, to its conversational robot Meta AI on Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, to submit various requests to it. Like its big rival chatGPT, designed by the start-up OpenAI, Meta AI would thus be able to answer general knowledge questions, help with writing tasks, whether text or computer code, generate images from a brief description, suggest restaurant addresses with a terrace, sea view and vegetarian menu or even, claim the Meta teams, suggest recipes for dinner, based on a simple photo of the contents of the refrigerator.
Also read: Meta’s new AI can generate videos from simple text
To further expand their audience, Meta engineers do not hesitate to enhance their AI with fun features that can sometimes look like gadgets. Since this week, A new function thus offers users the possibility of automatically generating their own digital avatarfrom their photo portrait possibly accompanied by a description or details on their interests.
At the same time, Zuckerberg is also infusing his artificial intelligence functions into new hardware devices, such as his Meta Quest virtual reality headset. Since this week, its users have been able to interact with the AI, while immersing themselves in synthetic universes. The concept also aims to use the cameras integrated into the headset to invite the AI to analyze the real world. Some geeks are already using it to obtain advice on decorating or arranging their living roomFor example.
Connected Ray-Bans for 329 euros
And that’s not all, because the Californian has also integrated its AI into the glasses it markets in partnership with Ray-Ban. In addition to being able to make video calls via Whatsapp or Messenger to share a live concert with your friends, for example, these glasses equipped with cameras and small speakers hidden in their frames can be useful in other contexts. You are in a Brazilian restaurant, you don’t understand anything on the menu? So ask your glasses to decipher it for you. To call them, simply say “Hey Meta, translate this menu into French for me please!”. The instructions adapt to other situations – “Hey Meta, take a picture of this object and explain to me what it can be used for”. By the end of the year, connected glasses could be enriched witha mini video projector capable of displaying information in augmented realitytourist data on the places visited for example.
It remains to be seen whether these high-tech Ray-Bans at 329 euros will be able to establish themselves as the most suitable instrument for the progress of artificial intelligence. “Like Meta, many have tried to invent a terminal more efficient than the computer or the smartphone, but to date no one has succeeded,” summarizes Stéphane Roder.
Also read: Why Meta delayed the launch of its generative AI in Europe
Furthermore, the expansion of Meta AI remains limited, since this app is not yet available in Europe. In June, the social networking giant had warned that it would delay its launch on the Old Continent, citing an uncertain regulatory framework within the Union. In exchange for the free service, Meta trains its artificial brain by recording its users’ requests. And Brussels is reluctant to do so, considering it does not comply with the sacrosanct European regulation on data protection, the famous GDPR.
Meta AI is therefore not available in France. But this restriction can be easily circumvented by using a VPN. This type of software allows you to hide the internet address of your computer or smartphone to deceive Meta’s servers. Once this obstacle is removed, it then becomes possible to converse in French, one of 200 languages assimilated by Meta AI.
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