With these new products, the Facebook group wants to surpass ChatGPT and Apple

With the chatbot ChatGPT, OpenAI started an arms race between the technical heavyweights in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). More AI software is now being integrated into apps from the Facebook group Meta, including Instagram.

AI will change the way people use most of Meta’s products, founder Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday evening at the “Connect” developer conference.

The tech billionaire wants to score points with his own AI chatbot ‘Meta AI’ and other AI applications. He also presented software that can generate original images from text specifications at the touch of a button.

The Facebook group is also trying to compete with Apple with new hardware. With the affordable mixed reality glasses “Quest 3”. However, according to initial estimates, this is technically behind.

What did Meta present about generative AI?

Three new AI technologies that will be integrated into the Meta Group’s main apps:

The idea behind it is to give users a chance to pursue their interests in an interactive way, he said Meta product boss Chris Cox. In the “AI Studio” companies must be able to develop their own artificial intelligence. Celebrities could also bring AI versions of themselves to the platform over time, Cox said.

How is that supposed to help?

Artificial intelligence will change the way people use most of Meta’s products, Zuckerberg says. The American group also includes Instagram and the chat services WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

At the same time, product boss Cox admitted that AI applications have not yet become an integral part of their daily lives for most people. “They are certainly interesting, but we didn’t see anything that would be useful in everyday life, like WhatsApp, email or the camera.” But he could imagine that AI could be very useful in learning new languages, for example.

Meta can keep the risks that AI poses under control, he said Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth. It is not difficult for actors with malicious intent to control an invasive chatbot. “But we still control account access to the platform.”

Because AI software can sometimes produce unexpected and problematic content, Meta will take more time to introduce such features than usual.

What about the new VR glasses?

The most important new meta-product is the VR glasses, which are intended to more closely connect the real environment and digital content. The device with the name Quest 3 uses cameras to capture space and display it in three dimensions. Digital objects can then be embedded in the real environment for users. These could be, for example, virtual photos on the wall – or a portal through which you can slip into another virtual world.

The Quest 3 puts VR pioneer Meta in direct competition with Apple, which also wants to merge real and artificial worlds with its soon-to-be released Vision Pro glasses. However, Meta emphasizes that they want to make the technology more affordable: Quest 3 costs $499 in the USwhile Apple glasses will hit the market next year for $3,500.

Zuckerberg said he assumes that over time you will interact in a room with as many digital objects as real objects. For example, during meetings in companies, people, digital avatars of absent employees and different chatbots are increasingly sitting at the same table.

Daily life increasingly consists of a combination of physical and digital experiences and a central question is how to bring these together. This is also known as ‘Mixed Reality’, but Apple speaks of ‘Spatial Computing’ and also avoids the term Metaverse used by Zuckerberg.

What do the new smart glasses offer?

Meta also presented a new version of the smart glasses, developed in collaboration with eyewear specialist Ray-Ban. It can take photos and videos – and the AI ​​chatbot Meta AI can answer user questions through small speakers. For example, you can ask the glasses what kind of building you are currently looking at.

If you ask the glasses to send a photo to a friend, he or she will take a photo and send it via your usual messaging app. If desired, the software can also automatically write text to an Instagram video you just recorded.

According to the announcement, the glasses will cost $299 and will be sold starting October 17.

The two companies launched the first version of the smart glasses in 2021, with which you can take photos and films. The aim was to test whether people accept being filmed everywhere. As is known, the Google Glass video glasses raised enormous data protection concerns after their presentation in 2012 and ultimately flopped.

Does this work for meta?

The famous American analyst and Big Tech expert Gene Munster gave an assessment of the market opportunities after the presentation of the new meta-products:

Zuckerberg has long relied on virtual worlds. He had the Facebook group renamed Meta to emphasize the focus on the virtual environment, the ‘Metaverse’.

At the same time, development costs billions of dollars quarter after quarter, while the technology has still not captured a mass market. In the first half of 2023 alone, the Reality Labs division posted an operating loss of $7.7 billion.

However, technical boss Andrew Bosworth was confident the investments would ultimately pay off. “You can see from the figures in the quarterly reports how certain we are of this.”

Sources

Material from Keystone-SDA news agency

(dsc)