Artificial intelligence is being rolled out across the suite of Meta apps in Australia, the biggest change to the apps in years.
The new AI assistant, Meta AI, built with Llama 3, is now available on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
First announced by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in September last year at Meta Connect 2023, Meta AI has arrived on Aussie shores.
It’s been available in the US for a while, but Aussie users gained access to the tech this past week.
The AI assistant can be used for all kinds of things, including accessing real-time information inside the apps.
The free AI functionality can also quickly generate lifelike images based on prompts.
To create an image you can write “imagine” or “create me an image of” and then describe the picture you want to generate.
You can access Meta AI a couple of different ways.
For example in a WhatsApp chat, write @ and select @Meta AI.
You can then input a prompt, for example asking for a list of restaurants.
Another way is to open a direct chat with Meta AI in WhatsApp.
This can be accessed by tapping the Meta AI logo that now hovers over the WhatsApp screen.
Meta has confirmed the tech is being rolled out to people in Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
As with most AI, you can iterate the results and Meta AI will tweak the response as you give additional prompts.
I created multiple versions of a poem for a friend, with the result improving as I made more specific requests.
Meta AI is also available on desktop PCs through the website meta.ai.
The AI tech is also being rolled out in search across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. For example, you can access the AI in Messenger by writing @ and selecting Meta AI.
The AI can be accessed on Instagram in a similar way.
Meta says Meta AI is also being rolled out on Facebook, allowing people to ask the AI for more information about a post.
However, that doesn’t seem to be available in Australia just yet.
Additionally, Meta revealed that American users are getting the first look at a new feature that will create AI images as words are typed.
For example as you type “imagine a soccer…”, images will immediately appear and change as you finish the sentence.
There’s no word on when that will be rolled out in Australia.
About 22 million people use Facebook in Australia, WhatsApp has about 12 million users and Instagram 12.5 million.
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