Meta wants to defeat ChatGPT with their Own AI App

 

You will have Instagram, Facebook, and/or WhatsApp installed on your phone. So, in the recent months, you must have seen how they have integrated their “Meta AI” on those platforms, to write better posts, or create images. Now, Meta wants to provide these AI services through their mobile App and website to compete with ChatGPT and Gemini.

Meta’s Future Plans for an AI Mobile App

According to CNBC, Meta is planning to launch a standalone AI app in the second quarter of this year. This is quite a big development as Meta is a tech giant with access to billions of users worldwide.

Meta AI was first introduced in September 2023, and then became part of the company’s social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger in April 2024.

While ChatGPT and Perplexity are dominant apps, it sounds unbelievable that Meta has still not participated in this race, after having a powerful AI model on their side.

Meta’s Llama 3 already offers functionalities such as answering questions and generating images. While it is not as powerful as GPT-4 when we compared it, it can still be sufficient for regular users who don’t need something extraordinary.

ChatGPT got a new competitor

ChatGPT is the most popular app people use when they want to get help from AI. Then, there is Google with Gemini, which comes built-in if you have an Android Device. If you are a PC guy, you must have access to Microsoft’s Copilot. So, now with Meta AI, they all will get a new direct competitor.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has already discussed big plans to invest in their AI infrastructure and become the market leader in the space by the end of the year. This move will give them a big boost.

This is what Mark said in their last quarterly earnings report:

“In AI, I expect that this is going to be the year when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than 1 billion people, and I expect Meta AI to be that leading AI assistant. … Meta AI is already used by more people than any other assistant. And once a service reaches that kind of scale, it usually develops a durable long-term advantage.”

-Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta

He thinks that people will need a more personalized AI based on their interests and personality. This means there will be a need for different types of AI for various reasons and Meta can capitalize on that. That’s why they started with enabling AI services on their social sites.

Also, just a month ago, he replied to a user’s request to launch a standalone AI app on Threads:

This confirms that Zuck is cooking something inside the company.

However, this new App will not be free to use like their integration in their social media platforms. The company is considering starting a paid subscription model similar to ChatGPT.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also took notice of this development and had this to say:

Meta’s Finance Chief Susan Li had claimed in January that Meta AI has 700 million active monthly users. Most of these users are from India, specifically from WhatsApp. Still, the lack of a standalone app is something that is not making them a serious player in the AI market.

By comparison, ChatGPT had 300 million weekly active users in December last year, and they are growing rapidly every month. Google and Elon Musk’s xAI have recently announced similar plans to bring their App for the users. Meta is still behind!

According to reports, Zuckerberg believes a chatbot could reach up to 1 billion users this year.

Takeaways

We can now just wait and watch what Zuckerberg has in store for us. If they can pull something interesting, the AI market can be disrupted with a single announcement!