This morning (Tuesday), Meta opened a new chapter in the global race for artificial intelligence with the launch of a standalone app: Meta AI – a smart personal assistant based on Generative AI, designed to directly compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The app is built on the Llama language model developed by the company, and it will be presented to users along with a Discover feed that allows them to see how others are using it and get ideas for new uses.
This move is part of what is increasingly emerging as a technological arms race among the tech giants in the AI field. It also includes Google with its Gemini app and Elon Musk’s xAI, which developed Grok. Each of these companies has already launched a dedicated, standalone app for its AI assistant.
Already in September 2023, Meta integrated the Meta AI chatbot into its existing apps – Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger – replacing the search bar and embedding it in the user interface. However, this marks a significant leap forward: A standalone app that enables free, complex, and much broader interaction, and will also be available to those who are not regular users of the company’s other services.
The move was announced after reports in February indicated that Meta was expected to launch a separate app based on Llama, and now, for the first time, the company officially confirms it. At the launch event held at Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, as part of the LlamaCon developers’ conference, advanced capabilities of the new model were presented, including image generation, smart answers to questions, high-level natural language understanding, and personalized text generation.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, stated as early as January this year that he believes 2025 will be the year when smart AI assistants will reach one billion users. “Meta AI will be the one to lead the field,” he said. According to the company, in January this year, the Meta AI app had around 700 million monthly active users – up from 600 million the previous month.
The new initiative is part of an ambitious investment plan. In January, the company announced its intention to invest up to $65 billion over the coming year in expanding the infrastructure and development of the artificial intelligence sector. Investors are closely monitoring the new launches in an effort to determine whether the investment will also pay off in commercial terms.