Meta wants a piece of the pie — a big piece — when it comes to generative AI. As part of its long-term strategy to embed itself in every part of our lives, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company is planning to launch its Meta AI chatbot as a standalone app, CNBC reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources claiming to have knowledge of the matter.
Meta is aiming to launch the AI chatbot app between April and June this year, the sources said. The company may also offer a subscription model with more advanced features.
A standalone Meta AI app would compete with the slew of other AI chatbots already out there, including popular ones like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, X’s Grok, Perplexity, and DeepSeek, a Chinese effort that burst onto the scene just last month.
Meta unveiled Meta AI in September 2023 before incorporating it into its stable of apps — among them Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — starting last April. Like other generative AI apps, Meta AI can converse in a natural, human-like way, and also create images in response to prompts input by users.
Speaking in January, Zuckerberg said that 2025 would be “the year when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than one billion people, and I expect Meta AI to be that leading AI assistant.”
By offering Meta AI as a standalone app rather than only as a part of its social media apps, Meta believes it will lead to deeper, more rewarding interaction with the AI, sources told CNBC.
Certainly, if a big hitter like Meta does release Meta AI as a standalone app, it will increase competition and potentially further fragment the AI chatbot sector.
Additionally, Meta’s huge data resources could give its AI an edge in personalization, but at the same time its arrival may raise more privacy concerns compared to other AI chatbots.
Responding to news that Meta may be about to release a standalone app for its AI chatbot, OpenAI chief Sam Altman quipped in a post on X: “OK, fine, maybe we’ll do a social app,” adding, “lol if Facebook tries to come at us and we just uno reverse them it would be so funny.”
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
ChatGPT just dipped its toes into the world of AI agents
OpenAI appears to be just throwing spaghetti at this point, hoping it sticks to a profitable idea. The company announced on Tuesday that it is rolling out a new feature called ChatGPT Tasks to subscribers of its paid tier that will allow users to set individual and recurring reminders through the ChatGPT interface.
Tasks does exactly what it sounds like it does: It allows you to ask ChatGPT to do a specific action at some point in the future. That could be assembling a weekly news brief every Friday afternoon, telling you what the weather will be like in New York City tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., or reminding you to renew your passport before January 20. ChatGPT will also send a push notification with relevant details. To use it, you’ll need to select “4o with scheduled tasks” from the model picker menu, then tell the AI what you want it to do and when.
Get ready: Google Search may bring a pure ‘AI mode’ to counter ChatGPT
It is match point Google as the tech giant prepares to introduce a new “AI Mode” for its search engine, which will allow users to transition into an atmosphere that resembles the Gemini AI chatbot interface.
According to a report from The Information, Google will add an AI Mode tab to the link options in its search results, where the “All,” “Images,” “Videos,” and “Shopping” options reside. The AI Mode would make Google search more accessible and intuitive for users, allowing them to “ask follow-up” questions pertaining to the links in the results via a chatbot text bar, the publication added.
Here’s everything OpenAI announced in the past 12 days
OpenAI kicked off its inaugural “12 Days of OpenAI” media blitz on December 5, each day unveiling new features, models, subscription tiers, and capabilities for its growing ChatGPT product ecosystem during a series of live-stream events.
Here’s a quick rundown of everything the company announced.
Day 1: OpenAI unleashes its o1 reasoning model and introduces ChatGPT Pro
OpenAI o1 and o1 pro mode in ChatGPT — 12 Days of OpenAI: Day 1
