Meta releases AI Studio to let users create custom chatbots

30 Jul 2024

Image: © freshidea/Stock.adobe.com

Meta says users can create chatbots for their own purposes or make an AI version of themselves on Instagram to respond to messages.

Meta is giving its users more control over its AI designs by letting them create tailored versions of chatbots – including AI versions of themselves.

The tech giant has revealed AI Studio which enables users to create specific AI chatbots through the tool’s website or directly on Instagram. This model has been rolled out to US users and is built on Llama 3.1, Meta’s biggest AI model to date.

Meta said AI Studio lets creators make an AI chatbot that is customised on things such as “their Instagram content, topics to avoid and links they want it to share”. This chatbot can be made for only the creator to access or made available to friends and family.

Some of the examples Meta shared include an AI chatbot tailored to provide food tips when travelling, one designed to help users with their photography skills and a ‘stress ball’ chatbot to support users at work.

The company has also pitched this new product as a way to support Instagram creators by automating replies to fans so they can reach more people.

“Instagram creators can set up an AI as an extension of themselves that can quickly answer common DM [direct message] questions and story replies,” Meta said in a blogpost. “Whether it’s sharing facts about themselves or linking to their favorite brands and past videos, creator AIs can help creators reach more people and fans get responses faster.

“With AI Studio, we’re taking the first steps in creating a world where anyone can harness the creative capabilities of AI – and this is just the beginning.”

Meta’s latest offering follows a similar move by OpenAI last year, which gave users the option to build their own versions of ChatGPT. At the start of 2024, OpenAI launched its GPT Store, where users can share customised versions of the company’s AI products.

Meanwhile, Meta has also released a new version of its Segment Anything Model (SAM), which is designed to detect objects in an image even if it has never seen it before. The company says its latest version – SAM 2 – performs better than the previous version.

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Leigh Mc Gowran is a journalist with Silicon Republic

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