Meta announces the deployment of Llama 3, the new version of its open source language model, as well as the integration of its new Meta AI assistant in all its services and on the Web. What to compete with ChatGPT and Gemini?
Like any good self-respecting tech giant, Meta has also entered the AI race with LLaMA (Large Language Model Meta AI), a language processing model competing with OpenAI’s GPT-4 and of Google’s Gemini, but also with CM3leon, an image generator competing with DALL-E and Midjourney, or its AudioGen and MusicGen tools. Mark Zuckerberg’s group also developed Emu (Expressive Media Universe), its model for image generation presented last September. So many technological innovations that the group intends to incorporate into all these services. Also, on April 18, Meta presented Llama 3, its latest open-source language model. Successor to Llama 2, “this next generation demonstrates industry-leading performance across a wide range of industrial benchmarks and delivers new capabilities, including improved reasoning”he explains in a blog post. This model now powers Meta AI, the company’s virtual assistant, which is thus “smarter, faster and more fun than ever” and will be deployed on all of the company’s products.
Llama 3: a new big, powerful language model
Llama 3 is the new language model (LLM) developed by Meta to animate its AI assistant. It’s the next major version of the company’s open source model – a philosophy that helps it distinguish itself from other giants, like Google and OpenAI. Llama 3 positions itself as a rival to private models (Gemini, GPT-4, etc.) and free models (like Mistral). According to Mark Zuckerberg’s firm, Llama 3 outperforms competing models and is better in all areas, such as coding – after all, all companies make this kind of speech about their AI. Two first versions of the language model, comprising 8 billion and 70 billion parameters respectively, are available now in the Meta AI chatbot and for external developers. A much larger multimodal version, with 400 billion parameters, will arrive in the coming months.
Meta recognizes its lack of awareness in the world of AI, but nevertheless believes it will be able to catch up with its competitors thanks to the power of its services and its 3 billion users worldwide.
Meta AI: a chatbot in Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp
The social media giant plans to deploy its Meta AI chatbot on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, but also on Quest headsets – what about Threads? A true personal assistant, this conversational robot allows you to ask questions at any time on all kinds of subjects, “without having to switch from one application to another”as the company explains in a blog post. Already accessible in the beta version of WhatsApp, Meta AI can provide you with a cooking recipe as well as recommend a tailor-made hiking route. On Messenger, a friend suggests you go out to dinner but doesn’t know where? All you have to do is mention the chatbot and it will come to your rescue. It can also generate images and has its own chat, so you can chat with it privately.
On Facebook, Meta AI will be accessible in the news feed, allowing you to ask it for more information about a post that interests you directly from there. For example, if a photo intrigues you, simply click on the AI button to find out where it was taken. Llama 3 is also able to recognize the content of a post to create intelligent suggestions, such as “how to learn guitar” under a guitar video. The wizard also joins the search bar. So, with the sentence “ideas of things to do in Paris”, Meta AI will suggest things by combining Google and Bing searches, in order to find the most relevant information.
Meta has launched a web version of its assistant (meta.ai), which can be used without any special application, just with a simple browser. This chatbot uses the ChatGPT interface and can be used without having to connect to a Meta account first. On the other hand, to unlock the image creation functions – which generates visuals on request and can create animations to download –, synchronization with Messenger or even to obtain conversation history, you will have to log in. Currently, Meta AI is only available in English and in select countries, including the United States, Australia, Jamaica, Singapore, and Zimbabwe. Nothing is yet planned for Europe and France, but it is still possible to use a VPN to virtually change location and already get an idea of this new service.