Meta opens up access to the Meta AI assistant geographically, linguistically, and artistically, giving it the ability to communicate in seven new languages and seven additional countries, and create fantastical images of you based on prompts.
Users in 22 countries can now interact with Meta AI on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook, and the chatbot now understands and can respond in French, German, Hindi, Hindi-Romanized script, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Meta AI will also be appearing for the first time for those wearing Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Meta Quest headsets.
The expansion also includes a new AI image creation tool called “Imagine Me” that will produce a digital avatar of the user based on uploaded photos. The virtual version of the user can be incorporated into any desired environment via text message. If you don’t like what the AI creates, you can send a follow-up message that will change any aspect that doesn’t match your vision of the AI-generated art.
“Simply type “Picture me” into your Meta AI chat to get started, and then you can add a message like “Picture me as royalty” or “Picture me in a surreal painting.” From there, you can share the images with friends and family, giving you the perfect comeback or a fun sidebar to liven up your group chat,” Meta explained in the update announcement. “You can easily add or remove objects, change them around, and edit them, adjusting only what you want while keeping the rest of the image as it was. You could say “Imagine a cat diving into a fish tank,” and then decide you want it to be a corgi. You’d then simply type “Change the cat to a corgi” to adjust the image.”
Imagine me Me-ta
Meta had been testing the Imagine Me feature on WhatsApp, but it will now be rolled out across all of the tech giant’s platforms. Additionally, any AI art produced using Meta’s tools will soon be shareable in Facebook posts and stories, as well as through messages on Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. One update that won’t be universally available right now is access to Meta’s most advanced AI model, Llama 405B, which will improve the assistant’s ability to tackle complex questions, particularly in math and coding — but only on WhatsApp and meta.ai for now.
Anyway, Imagine Me and related AI image editing tools are the highlight of the update. It’s not something Meta’s rivals are offering right now, which immediately opens a channel to entice some OpenAI and Google fans to switch to Meta. Frankly, ChatGPT and Google Gemini will rarely create AI images of real people, and they definitely won’t store a model for reuse. They usually suggest a general look for an AI-generated image of a human, if they allow it at all.
