META ITS MATCH?
Meta takes on Apple’s Siri with Facebook AI that ‘talks to you’ in long list of celeb voices and can ‘see’ like a human
Meta managed to transform me into a steely superhero in a clever demo
META has upgraded its artificial intelligence to speak to you out loud – and tech boss Mark Zuckerberg says it can even “see”.
The Meta AI is now more like Apple’s Siri but with a big difference: it can talk to you using celeb voices too.
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Zuckerberg revealed the news at the annual Meta Connect event in California.
An early version of Meta AI debuted at the previous event in September 2023, with a fuller release in April this year.
Now Meta AI will be able to talk back to you with an actual voice in Meta’s apps – including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
And Meta has signed up top celebs to voice its AI, including Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Kristen Bell, Awkwafina, and Keegan Michael Key.
Read more on Meta
You can choose any one of them to act as your AI companion, and they’ll answer whenever you ask a question.
Meta says that more than 400 million people are now using Meta AI – including 185 million weekly users.
If you’re already a Meta AI fan and want to keep typing to the chatbot, that’s fine too.
But voice is now set to roll out to the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand “over the next month”.
If you’re in the US, Meta is also handing out a bonus feature: the ability for Meta AI to “see”.
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So if you send Meta AI a photo in chat, it’ll be able to tell you about what’s in them.
For instance, you could share a photo of a dog to find out its breed, or get the species of a bird.
Meta AI can also edit these photos that you’ve shared.
On top of that, Meta can use your own face and put it into AI images.
For instance, you could ask Meta AI to turn you into a superhero or a firefighter, and it'll do just that.
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AI ARMS RACE RAGES ON
Here's what The Sun's tech expert thinks of the new AI announcements...
Tech giants are waging an artificial intelligence war – and the result is an unstoppable flow of new AI features.
With every tech event from the likes of Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft comes a flurry of new AI tricks.
Some of it is great fun: I tried Meta AI at Facebook HQ and used a scan of my face to recreate myself in superhero form.
I was incredibly buff and chiseled, and it has honestly given me a life crisis. How more must I exercise to reach this godlike body? What if my wife leaves me for my AI clone? Lots to think about.
But other tricks are useful, and potentially genuinely life-changing.
Though I wasn't able to try it, the ability for Meta to dub and lip-sync your videos into other languages feels like a big win for humanity.
Being able to understand videos from anywhere in the world will hopefully bring us all together. And probably want to make us going on more holidays.
So far, tech giants have done a pretty good job with their AI kit – minus the occasional wacky bugs we've seen.
I worry that as tech giants become more desperate for these AI wins, the quality might begin to sleep.
But for now, there's loads of AI fun you can have in your pocket. So go turn yourself into the superhero that you really are.
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TESTING, TESTING
Zuckerberg also confirmed that Meta is testing out some more experimental AI features too.
There’s a new app feature that will automatically dub your Reels videos to another langue – and even sync your lips to the speech too.
Meta says this will allow you to “reach more people around the world”.
More bizarrely, Meta says it will be showing you content “imagined” for you in your Facebook or Instagram feeds.
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Meta explains: “You can tap a post to take that content in a new direction or swipe to see more content imagined for you in real time.
“Some of the images will be based on your interests, so you can dive deep into what you care about.
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“And others may feature you, so you can be the star of your own story and share your favourites with friends.”
It’s unclear how many people will get access to these new experimental features.
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