Meta plans to launch numerous artificial intelligence chatbots by September this year that will host different “personalities,” in an effort to recoup faltering interest in the social media giant’s other products.
According to the Financial timesthese chatbots have been in the works for a while, aiming to have more human conversations with users in an effort to increase social media engagement.
The attempt to give different chatbots different temperaments and personalities appears to be a similar attempt at a “social” AI chatbot seen in Snapchat’s “My AI” earlier this year, which created a mild buzz but soon faded into irrelevance.
According to the report, Meta is even investigating a chatbot that speaks like Abraham Lincoln, and one that will provide travel advice in a surfer’s verbal style. These new tools are poised to provide new search features and make recommendations similar to the ways the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT is used.
It’s possible – probably even – that this new batch of AI chatbots is an attempt to stay relevant, as the company may be focused on holding attention as Threads has more than half its share just a few weeks after its launch in early July of its user base. Meta’s long-running “metaverse” project also doesn’t seem to have sparked enough interest, with the company shift focus to AI as a primary investment area back in March.
Either way, we’ll be treated to even more AI-powered chatbots soon. Oh joy.