Facebook Will Launch AI Chatbots With Different Personalities

IBL News | New York

Meta plans to launch a range of AI chatbots that exhibit different personalities and offer recommendations on Facebook in September.

An example is a character that emulates Abraham Lincoln. Facebook, which seeks to retain and attract users in its battle with social media upstart TikTok, sees these characters as a fun product for people to play with.

On top of boosting engagement, Facebook’s chatbots can collect vast amounts of data on users’ interests to attract advertisers. Currently, most of Meta’s $117bn a year in revenues comes from advertising.

Rival companies, such as Andreessen Horowitz-backed start-up Character.ai, have already launched chatbots that feature personalities who generate conversation in the style of individuals, such as Elon Musk and the Nintendo character Mario.

During an earnings call this month, Zuckerberg told analysts that the company is also building AI agents that can help businesses with customer service and productivity assistants for staff.

Meta has been investing in generative AI, technology that can create text, images, and code. This month, it released a commercial version of a large language model that could power its chatbots, called Llama 2.
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