Meta Expands Its AI Chatbot Availability

Meta’s expanding access to its AI chatbot to 21 more nations, as the platform continues to build on its generative AI push.

As per the announcement from Meta’s Ahmed Al-Dahle, Meta’s AI chatbot is now available to users in Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Philippines, and the United Kingdom. It’s also coming soon to Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Yemen, and will include support for more languages as well.

The expansion means that more people will be able to access Meta’s advanced AI chatbot, which it says is on track to become the most used assistant in the world by the end of 2024.

Though I’m not sure that that’s a true endorsement of its utility.

Meta’s pushing its chatbot into its search tools in each of its apps, which immediately gives it prime placement in front of billions of active users. As such, this seems more like an endorsement of Meta’s scale, as opposed to functional value.

But even so, Meta’s claiming this as a win, and an endorsement of the value of its AI strategy, even if the value of such is questionable on a broader scale.

Not questionable in terms of technological advancement, and the capacity for additional assistance in queries. But questionable as to the impact that it’ll have on Meta’s apps, and its broader content ecosphere.

For example, Meta keeps adding more visual generative AI tools, including its soon-to-be-released video generative AI feature.

And those are interesting, but these aren’t human creations, and they’re not adding to the human engagement element of social apps.

Indeed, Meta’s already dealing with an influx of spammy, AI-generated engagement bait, which is impacting the user experience.

So the answer, then, is to give even more users even more ways to generate fake content?

Yeah, I’m not convinced that this is the best way forward, but Meta’s determined to lead the gen AI wave, and as part of that, it wants to get users more excited about the creative possibilities of AI. Even, seemingly, if that runs counter to the actual value of its platforms.

So, more AI, in more places, starting today.

Worth noting too that Meta recently gained approval to U.K. user posts within its AI training, after negotiation with British authorities, which will help to improve the local relevance of its AI bot push in the region.

Probably. That’s what Meta says anyway.