WhatsApp is going all out with artificial intelligence! Its generative AI features for creating personalized images and chatting with celebrity chatbots are starting to arrive in beta versions, giving us our first glimpse.
Like many popular apps, WhatsApp is getting started with artificial intelligence (AI). Meta’s famous instant messaging will in fact be equipped with several functions powered by generative AI, like what tools such as ChatGPT, DALL-E or Midjourney offer. This is what Mark Zuckerberg’s company announced at the end of September, during the Meta Connect conference. “We are increasingly interested in the possibilities of generative AI and how it can not only entertain us, but also help us become more creative and productive, all with the sending of a simple message “explained Meta in his blog post. “WhatsApp is the home of many conversations, and we are passionate about making this emerging technology accessible to as many people as possible around the world.” Moreover, the company is already starting to deploy its chatbot in the latest beta version 2.23.24.26 of the Android application, as reported by the specialized site WABetaInfo. It should be rolled out to the general public in the coming weeks.
Meta AI: chatbots galore in WhatsApp
A new function allows you to chat with a chatbot, Meta AI. A true personal assistant, this conversational robot allows you to ask questions at any time on all kinds of subjects or even to start a debate in a group discussion. Capable of accessing information on the Internet in real time with Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, Meta AI can give you a cooking recipe as well as recommend a tailor-made hiking route. The icon to access it is located just above the one that allows you to start a new conversation, in the Discussions tab.
Better yet, WhatsApp does not intend to settle for the servile Meta AI assistant. The publisher has thus planned 28 other very particular chatbots, because they are based on celebrity personalities: the YouTuber MrBeast, who thus plays a mocking big brother, the rapper Snoop Dogg, who acts as a dungeon master to play games textual roles, but also Paris Hilton, Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner and Naomi Osaka. Everyone is lending their face to these “virtual buts”, but Meta also plans to use their voices by next year. The function is already deployed to a limited handful of beta testers, as reported TechRadar. Chatbots are accessible from the home page, and simply tap an icon above the big “+ at the bottom right (on Android) or in the menu bar at the top (on iOS) to start a new conversation with a bot, as you would for a standard discussion, except that it is an AI which will answer you. Note that you can only launch discussions with AIs from the mobile application, but that they are then available in the desktop version of WhatsApp.
AI Stickers: stickers generated in a few words
One of the other features that beta testers can already experiment with is called AI Stickers. As its name suggests, it allows you to generate personalized stickers directly from the WhatsApp conversation interface in order to enrich exchanges with fun little images. In practice, all you have to do is enter a description of the desired result – for example, “pizza playing basketball” or “happy raccoon on a motorcycle” – for the AI to generate a corresponding sticker. Once the sticker has been generated, one can share it with their contacts. If one of the stickers is inappropriate or problematic, you can report it to Meta (see our article)
In the same vein, the Photorealistic Image Generation function allows you to create images from scratch representing a place, a person or an idea from a short textual description, such as “a cat on a surfboard”. Quite nice! Note that most of these AI features will also be integrated into Meta’s other major apps, namely Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. However, you will have to be patient to take advantage of them because they will only be available in beta form at first, and only in the United States.
