The social media landscape in India, a country boasting over 500 million WhatsApp users alone, is now set to see the arrival of Meta’s AI assistant, powered by their most advanced large language model (LLM) to date, Llama 3. The social media company, in an official statement, announced the rollout of its AI assistant across popular social platforms in the world’s second-largest internet market, including Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger.
This move comes nearly a week after Google introduced its Gemini App in the country. Initially launched worldwide in April at Meta’s annual Connect event, this AI assistant leverages Meta’s advanced large language model, Llama 3. After a period of beta testing for Indian users, the AI assistant is now accessible to all users across the nation. “Built with Meta Llama 3, Meta AI is one of the world’s leading AI assistants, already on your phone, in your pocket for free across more than a dozen countries. And it’s starting to roll out in India in English. You can use Meta AI on WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram to get things done, learn, create and connect with the things that matter to you,” Meta wrote in its statement.
Llama 3 powers Meta’s AI chatbot, ensuring that users can leverage it for a wide range of tasks, including real-time information retrieval through integration with search engines like Google and Microsoft’s Bing. Additionally, Meta AI boasts impressive text and image (and GIF) generation capabilities, allowing users to create content and express themselves in new ways. With this, content creation is expected to become more efficient with text and image generation capabilities. Users can brainstorm social media posts with AI or swiftly generate custom stickers for their friends.
Unlike competitors that require separate app downloads, Meta AI leverages the familiar interfaces of WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. This allows users to access the AI assistant directly within their preferred social media environment, eliminating the need to switch between apps. Meta AI is now available across Meta’s suite of apps, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, can also be accessed via the meta.ai website, and the social media company plans to expand language support in the future.
India, with its extensive user base of over a billion people across Meta’s platforms, represents a significant market for AI assistants. Meta’s AI assistant enters a competitive Indian market already populated with similar tools, such as Microsoft Copilot. In fact, the launch of Meta AI follows closely on the heels of Google’s Gemini app, which supports nine Indian languages. Furthermore, Meta’s assistant does not require users to install an additional application or pay a subscription fee. According to Ryan Cairns, VP of Engineering at Meta, this integration into existing apps provides a significant advantage, as users can access the AI assistant directly through the platforms they already use. For instance, on WhatsApp, users can ask for suggestions for a road trip or create multiple-choice tests on the web. On Facebook, the AI can provide insights related to specific posts.
“With our most powerful large language model under the hood, Meta AI is better than ever. We’re excited to share our next-generation assistant with even more people and can’t wait to see how it enhances people’s lives,” the company noted.
