
Zuckerberg says Meta AI bot used a billion times monthly
Google revealed AI Overviews has grown to over 1.5 billion users since debuting in search results last year. (Reuters pic)
CALIFORNIA : Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg touted the tech firm's generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) assistant on Wednesday, telling shareholders it is used by a billion people each month across its platforms.
Zuckerberg noted the milestone anew at Meta's annual gathering of shareholders and as the social media behemoth vies with Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and others to be a leader in Gen AI.
It was not clear how much Meta AI use involved people seeking out the chatbot versus passive users of Meta AI, as it is built into features in its family of apps.
Since Google debuted AI Overviews in search results a year ago, it has grown to more than 1.5 billion users, according to Google chief executive Sundar Pichai.
'That means Google Search is bringing Gen AI to more people than any other product in the world,' Pichai said.
Google's AI Overviews are automatically provided summaries of search results that appear instead of the previous practice of simply showing pages of blue links to revelant websites.
Pichai said last week that Google's dedicated Gemini AI app has more than 400 million monthly users.
Tech rivals are rapidly releasing new AI products despite ongoing challenges with preventing misinformation and establishing clear business models, and little sense of how the tech will affect society.
Meta unveiled its first standalone AI assistant app on April 29, giving users a direct path to its Gen AI models.
'A billion people are using Meta AI across our apps now, so we made a new standalone Meta AI app for you to check out,' Meta CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a video posted on Instagram at the time.
Zuckerberg said the app 'is designed to be your personal AI' and would be primarily accessed through voice conversations with the interactions personalized to the individual user.
Use of Meta AI is growing fastest on WhatsApp, according to chief financial officer Susan Li.
'Our focus for this year is deepening the experience and making Meta AI the leading personal AI,' Zuckerberg said when Meta announced quarterly earnings at the end of April.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Free Malaysia Today
17 minutes ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Trump and China's Xi will likely speak this week, White House says
Donald Trump said he expects to speak with Xi Jinping, though China noted no recent talks had occurred between them. (AFP pic) WASHINGTON : President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will likely speak this week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday, days after Trump accused China of violating an agreement to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions. Leavitt is the third top Trump aide to forecast an imminent call between the two leaders to iron out differences on last month's tariff agreement in Geneva, among larger trade issues. It was not immediately clear when the two leaders will speak. US treasury secretary Scott Bessent told CBS' 'Face the Nation' on Sunday that Trump and Xi would speak 'very soon' to iron out trade issues including a dispute over critical minerals and China's restrictions of exports of certain minerals. Trump said on Friday he was sure that he would speak to Xi. China said in April that the two leaders had not had a conversation recently. Bessent led negotiations with China in Geneva last month that resulted in a temporary truce in the trade war between the world's two biggest economies, but progress since then has been slow, the US treasury chief told Fox News last week. The US-China agreement to dial back triple-digit tariffs for 90 days prompted a massive relief rally in global stocks. But it did nothing to address the underlying reasons for Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods, mainly longstanding US complaints about China's state-dominated, export-driven economic model, leaving those issues for future talks. A US trade court on Wednesday ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in imposing the bulk of his tariffs on imports from China and other countries under an emergency powers act. But less than 24 hours later, a federal appeals court reinstated the tariffs, saying it was pausing the trade court ruling to consider the government's appeal. The appeals court ordered the plaintiffs to respond by June 5 and the administration to respond by June 9.


Malay Mail
41 minutes ago
- Malay Mail
Top countries where the US gets its steel and aluminium from, and how much
WASHINGTON, June 3 — US President Donald Trump said on Friday he planned to double tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to 50 per cent from 25 per cent, starting from Wednesday, ratcheting up pressure on global producers and deepening his trade war. Here's a summary of the major trade partners it will affect. Steel: Roughly a quarter of all steel used in the US is imported, the bulk of it from neighbours Mexico and Canada or close allies in Asia and Europe such as Japan, South Korea and Germany. While China is the world's largest steel producer and exporter, it sends very little to the United States. Tariffs of 25 per cent imposed in 2018 shut most Chinese steel out of the market. China exported 508,000 net tons of steel to the US last year or 1.8 per cent of total American steel imports. Aluminium: For aluminium, the US is more heavily reliant on imports. Roughly half of all aluminium used in the US is imported, with the vast majority coming from Canada. At 3.2 million tons last year, Canadian imports were twice those of the next nine countries combined. The next largest sources of imports are the United Arab Emirates and China, at 347,034 and 222,872 metric tons, respectively. The US aluminium smelting industry is small by global standards. Total smelter capacity in the country was just 1.73 per cent of the global total according to the US Geological Survey. — Reuters


The Star
8 hours ago
- The Star
Apple challenges 'unreasonable' EU order to open up to rivals
People walk by the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in New York City, U.S., May 1, 2025. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper/File Photo (Reuters) - Apple has submitted a legal challenge to an EU order to open up its closed ecosystem to rivals such as Meta and Alphabet's Google, saying the demands are unreasonable and hamper innovation. The European Commission had in March detailed how Apple must comply with the Digital Markets Act, which aims to rein in the power of Big Tech. Apple said the EU's interoperability requirements create "a process that is unreasonable, costly, and stifles innovation". "These requirements will also hand data-hungry companies sensitive information, which poses massive privacy and security risks to our EU users," it said in a statement. "These deeply flawed rules that only target Apple - and no other company - will severely limit our ability to deliver innovative products and features to Europe, leading to an inferior user experience for our European customers." Meta, Google, Spotify and Garmin are among companies that have requested access to Apple users' data. The legal fight will likely take years to play out in court. Until then, Apple will have to comply with the EU order. The Commission ordered Apple to give rival makers of smartphones, headphones and virtual reality headsets access to its technology and mobile operating system so they can connect with Apple's iPhones and iPad tablets. It also set out a detailed process and timeline for Apple to respond to interoperability requests from app developers. (Editing by Kevin Liffey)