Meta may have been lagging behind in the latest generation of artificial intelligence, but the California-based group has now unveiled a series of innovations, namely personalised chatbots and new, augmented virtual reality devices.
At Meta's annual developer event, Connect, on Tuesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced 'Becca, devoted mother to her doggie' and 'Max, experienced sous-chef,' two out of 28 virtual characters created to interact with users. They will each have their own profiles on Facebook and Instagram, and are expected to be voice-enabled by next year.
Some of the characters are being played by celebrities, such as Paris Hilton and YouTube star MrBeast.
Meta had been eagerly awaited for its generative AI, which can produce all kinds of content - text, images, sound, code, etc. - simply by querying it in everyday language.
The group also gave details of Quest 3, its new mixed reality headset already presented last June. It will go on sale from $500 and be delivered from 10 October.
Ray-Ban’s new connected glasses (priced from $300) were also part of the show. Generative AI now allows them to make more complex voice queries.
At the end of 2021, during the pandemic, Facebook changed its name to Meta with the idea of becoming a metaverse company, described by Mark Zuckerberg as the future of the Internet, after the web and mobile. But the road to augmented and virtual reality has been fraught with pitfalls.
The Californian group endured a difficult 2022, marked by the first drop in its advertising revenues since it went public in 2012. Facebook also lost users, before gaining them back.
The company, which had never launched a redundancy plan in its 20-year history, dismissed 11,000 people in November (13% of the workforce) and 10,000 in March.
Against this backdrop, many investors and analysts take a dim view of spending on building virtual worlds. Reality Labs, the business responsible for developing devices and applications for the metaverse, lost $13.7 billion in 2022, and Meta predicts an even bigger bill in 2024.
