Meta has officially launched its Llama 3-powered AI chatbot for all users in India after conducting tests during the country’s general elections. The chatbot is currently only available in English, with no support for local languages at the moment.
During the testing phase in April, Meta introduced the chatbot on platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook to a selected group of users. Following successful trials in over a dozen countries, the company is now making the tool accessible to all Indian users through the search bar in its apps and Meta.AI website.
Similar to other chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, Meta AI can assist users in various tasks such as suggesting recipes, planning workouts, composing emails, and summarizing text. On Instagram, the chatbot can recommend Reels based on search queries, while on Facebook, users can interact with Meta AI in response to posts.
Interestingly, Meta AI has the capability to generate images based on user prompts. However, concerns have been raised regarding biases found in the generated images, such as consistently adding turbans to Indian men and depicting traditional Indian houses with specific features. Although Meta claims to be continuously updating its models, it is unclear if any changes have been made to address these biases.
With a massive user base of 500 million WhatsApp users in India, Meta aims to reach a wide audience by integrating the chatbot into its various platforms. Users can engage with Meta AI individually or within group chats for activities like trip planning or movie recommendations. The chatbot learns from user interactions and fine-tunes its responses accordingly.
Unlike Google’s Gemini app, which supports nine local languages, Meta AI currently only operates in English in India. The company has emphasized that the chatbot cannot be disabled, but users have the option to avoid interacting with it by choosing not to engage in search activities that invoke the chatbot.
As Meta continues to enhance its AI models and expand its reach in India, users can look forward to more personalized and interactive experiences across the company’s platforms. With the growing popularity of AI-powered assistants, Meta’s chatbot is set to play a significant role in shaping user interactions and engagement on social media.
