The Gist

  • A new top team. Meta is creating a dedicated top-level product team focused on generative AI.
  • A focus on creator tools. Zuckerberg plans to focus on creative and expressive tools first, then on to developing "AI personas."
  • LLaMA debuts. Last week, Meta announced LLaMA, smaller, less costly AI models.
  • Meta not the only AI player. The AI "arms race" is on.

Facebook's parent company Meta is doubling down on artificial intelligence (AI) with Mark Zuckerberg's announcement of a new team dedicated to creating AI-powered products. The team will be led by Facebook Meta's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and will be tasked with developing AI tools that can help improve the user experience across Meta's suite of platforms.

"We're creating a new top-level product group at Meta focused on generative AI to turbocharge our work in this area. We're starting by pulling together a lot of the teams working on generative AI across the company into one group focused on building delightful experiences around this technology into all of our different products. In the short term, we'll focus on building creative and expressive tools. Over the longer term, we'll focus on developing AI personas that can help people in a variety of ways. We're exploring experiences with text (like chat in WhatsApp and Messenger), with images (like creative Instagram filters and ad formats), and with video and multi-modal experiences. We have a lot of foundational work to do before getting to the really futuristic experiences, but I'm excited about all of the new things we'll build along the way." — Mark Zuckerberg, shared in a Facebook post

One of the team's primary long-term focuses will be on developing AI-powered personas, which can help users better engage with Meta's platforms. These personas will be able to interact with users in a more natural and human-like way, making it easier for them to find the information they need and complete tasks. The team will also be working on other AI products, including those related to Meta's new metaverse initiative.

Meta's recent announcement of an expanded team dedicated to developing AI products comes as no surprise, given the growing industry focus on generative AI. While the company introduced chatbots to Messenger in 2016, this latest move represents a significant push into the market.

Learning Opportunities

Meta is no doubt feeling the pressure with a flood of AI tools hitting the marketplace. OpenAI's ChatGPT is taking the generative AI space by storm, and it seems like every major player in tech is taking notice. Microsoft, Google and even Snapchat have thrown their hats into the ring, each vying for a piece of the burgeoning AI market.

Meta Announces Large Language Model LLaMA

Meta made waves last week with the announcement of its latest offering: the Large Language Model (LLaMA). According to the company, what sets their models apart is that they're accessible to researchers, boast a smaller footprint than other, more costly models and have different sizing depending on organizational needs.

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