Meta AI App: Zuckerberg beats OpenAI to social network punch
Meta introduced its second new app in less than two weeks on Tuesday, as it continues to fight for its future in court amid accusations that it sought to eliminate competition. The social media giant introduced the Meta AI App, built with the company's Llama 4 artificial intelligence model. 'People around the world use Meta AI daily across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger, and now, people can choose to experience a personal AI designed around voice conversations with Meta AI inside a standalone app,' the Californian technology company said in a statement. The app, available on iOS and Android, includes a much-touted discovery feed, which Meta describes as a 'place to share and explore how others are using AI'. For users in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, it also offers what Meta describes as 'full duplex speech technology', which it says has significantly more natural voice experience 'trained on conversational tongue'. It is not yet clear if or when Meta plans on opening access to the feature for users in other countries. 'Meta AI is built to get to know you, so its answers are more helpful,' the press release continued. It said the app would inevitably be compared to OpenAI's ChatGPT, which was launched in 2022 and fuelled a rapid investment in artificial intelligence research around the world. The release of Meta AI App comes several weeks after media reports quoted OpenAI employees as saying their company was working on its own social network that would be fuelled by its AI offerings. Last week, Meta also released a video app called Edits, which the company said is designed to make it easier for content creators to edit mobile videos for distribution on social media platforms. Edits is expected to compete in the same space as Captions, CapCut and other apps used by social media creators. Meanwhile, Meta is fighting to protect itself against accusations from the US Federal Trade Commission that it engaged in anti-competitive behaviour to squash competition and hurt consumers. Meta's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was among the first in a long list to be called to the witness box in the Washington court as the legal battle between the company and regulators continues. If Meta is found to have illegally stifled competition, the judge presiding over the closely watched case could force it to divest Instagram and WhatsApp from its portfolio of platforms.
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