Meta, previously known as Facebook, is expanding the availability of its Llama-3-powered AI chatbot, called Meta AI, to all users in India. This move comes after months of testing during the general elections in the country. Despite the widespread popularity of local languages in India, Meta AI currently only supports English.
Meta AI was first tested in India in April, with a limited release to select users across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook. However, the official rollout of the chatbot was delayed in India due to the general elections taking place at the time. Now, Meta is making the chatbot available to all users through the search bar in its apps, as well as through the meta.ai website.
Functionally, Meta AI is similar to other chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude. It can assist users in various tasks such as suggesting recipes, planning workouts, helping with email writing, and summarizing text. On Instagram, the chatbot can suggest Reels to watch based on user queries. Additionally, on the Facebook feed, users will see a Meta AI prompt, enabling them to ask questions related to a post.
One notable feature of Meta AI is its ability to generate images based on user prompts. However, there have been concerns about biases in the generated images. TechCrunch reported that when generating images of Indian men, Meta AI tends to add turbans. There were also biases in the representation of Indian houses, with consistent generation of old-school houses with vibrant colors and wooden columns. Meta claims to constantly update its models but it is unclear if changes have been made to address these biases.
India presents a significant user base for Meta, with 500 million WhatsApp users and hundreds of millions of users on its other apps. Users can interact with Meta AI individually on WhatsApp, but it is also possible to engage with the chatbot within group chats, for activities like trip planning or movie recommendations. However, Meta AI does not have context beyond the text used when mentioning or replying to the chatbot in the group chat.
Meta has stated that it is not possible to turn off or hide Meta AI functionality in its app, although users can choose to engage in a search without invoking the chatbot. This rollout by Meta comes shortly after Google released its Gemini app in India, which supports nine local languages.
In conclusion, Meta’s expansion of Meta AI availability in India indicates the company’s focus on tapping into the vast user base in the country. While the chatbot offers a range of functionalities, there have been concerns about biases in the generated images. It remains to be seen how Meta will address these concerns and further improve its AI models to better serve Indian users.
Source link
