Image: © Tada Images/Stock.adobe.com
Meta pledged to spend more on AI after a profit boost in its latest quarterly earnings last month.
Meta has hired the former CEO of Salesforce AI, Clara Shih, to lead a new group which will build artificial intelligence (AI) tools for businesses.
“Our vision for this new product group is to make cutting-edge AI accessible to every business, empowering all to find success and own their future in the AI era,” Shih said in an announcement on LinkedIn yesterday (19 November).
More than 200m businesses use Meta’s apps, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram to connect with consumers. Meta’s Llama AI models have more than 600m downloads to date and Meta AI now has 500m monthly active users.
In the company’s latest profits announcement last month, it pledged to increase AI spend. At the time, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that AI advances will accelerate the company’s core business and therefore more investment in AI is warranted. “Our AI investments continue to require serious infrastructure, and I expect to continue investing significantly there,” he said.
The business’ third-quarter revenue was up 19pc to $40.59bn, the highest in recent years, which Zuckerberg attributed to the company’s AI progress across its apps and business.
“Meta’s global reach and leadership in AI represent a generational opportunity for businesses, and I couldn’t be more excited and grateful to help take this from zero to one to scale,” Shih said. The exact nature of what the group will deliver is not clear, with Tech Crunch speculating that tools for creating AI-generated ads is likely.
Shih, who worked at Salesforce for four years and was head of AI efforts at the company for nearly two years, has previously worked at Google and Microsoft among other major companies. She wrote about Facebook back in 2009 in her book The Facebook Era.
“Social media has been the cornerstone of my career,” she said. “Today truly feels like a full-circle moment.”
Another executive in Salesforce, Adam Evans, will succeed Shih in overseeing the company’s AI efforts.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
