Meta CEO Zuckerberg explores digital assistants and AI to revolutionize the metaverse

Meta has unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) tools and celebrity-endorsed digital assistants in order to propel the development of the metaverse, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Meta showcased the AI software, as well as its new Quest 3 virtual reality headset and latest Ray-Ban smart glasses, at its Connect conference for VR developers held at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

Facebook users will soon have the ability to share auto-generated digital stickers through written prompts on various chat apps, such as WhatsApp and Messenger. This feature leverages technology like ChatGPT, capitalizing on its popularity.

For instance, users can generate a comical digital sticker of a basketball-playing pizza slice by simply typing the prompt “pizza playing basketball.”

Zuckerberg also introduced AI-powered editing tools for Instagram, which will be available next month. These tools allow users to modify their photos with written prompts. In a live demonstration, Zuckerberg showed how different prompts could transform one of his childhood photos, including changing his sweater to an ugly one or giving him blue hair. He also transformed a photo of his dog Beast to look like an origami figurine.

Making use of Meta’s Emu computer vision model, these new AI tools can generate images within approximately five seconds.

“My kids tell me it’s still not fast enough, but five seconds gets to a point where you’re really cooking,” Zuckerberg commented.

In the future, users will be able to automatically generate realistic visuals within Meta’s chat tools, similar to how people use the Midjourney AI app within the Discord messaging service.

The latest Meta AI digital assistant, similar to ChatGPT, can generate sophisticated text responses. It can also tap into Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, to provide real-time information for prompts. This partnership enables Meta’s digital assistant to compile accurate responses.

Meta has collaborated with several celebrities, including Paris Hilton, Mr. Beast, and Kendall Jenner, to create digital characters. Users can interact with these characters, such as asking travel-related questions to a digital assistant named Lorena, played by celebrity Padma Lakshmi. Additionally, users can engage in a game of Dungeons & Dragons with a narrator called a dungeon master, played by rapper Snoop Dog.

Zuckerberg mentioned that users will eventually have the ability to create their own digital assistants. However, the company plans to test this feature with select businesses before launching it to a wider audience.

The ultimate goal is for people to interact with these AI-powered digital assistants within Meta’s upcoming metaverse, the digital universe that Meta is investing billions of dollars in. The metaverse is aimed at becoming the next-generation computing platform.

While Zuckerberg remains committed to the metaverse, he is now placing greater emphasis on AI compared to previous Connect conferences. He stated that Meta’s AI investments are crucial for laying the foundation of the metaverse, as illustrated by their latest collaboration with EssilorLuxottica for the development of Ray-Ban smart glasses. These glasses, priced at $299 and set to release on October 17, incorporate Meta’s AI software, allowing users to identify landmarks and translate signs.

“Before this last year of AI breakthroughs, I kind of thought that smart glasses were only really going to become ubiquitous once we really dialed in, you know, the holograms and the displays and all of that stuff, which we’re making progress on,” Zuckerberg remarked.

He added, “Now, I think that the AI part of this is going to be just as important,” emphasizing the role of AI in enhancing the appeal of smart glasses.

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