In the Battle of the AI Chatbots, Meta Looks Set to Win

Editor's note: Artificial intelligence is already changing the technology we use every day. Every tech player wants to do it better than the rest of the industry. And according to Louis Navellier (from our corporate affiliate InvestorPlace), one of this trend's likely winners is a company you may already know. In this piece – adapted from an issue of Louis Navellier's Market360 – he lays out its advantages in the race to win over consumers...


Ever since OpenAI's ChatGPT launched in November 2022, the battle of the artificial-intelligence ("AI") chatbots has raged... and a winner may have just emerged.

At its Meta Connect event two weeks ago, Meta Platforms (META) announced its very own generative AI chatbot: Meta AI.

And it's already poised to rival – and maybe best – ChatGPT and the rest.

So, today, let's dig into the details of Meta's latest AI venture. Then, I'll share why Meta is one step ahead in the industry right now...

Meta AI is an advanced conversational assistant that can generate text responses, like its contemporaries. However, it can also generate images based on a prompt, which ChatGPT and most others can't yet do.

To use the new chatbot, you can simply message Meta AI one-on-one or in a group chat. It's currently available on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger (each of which Meta owns). And it will soon be available on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Quest 3, Meta's virtual-reality headset.

The image below shows how Meta AI can be used. While this isn't unique or groundbreaking, the chatbot's advantage comes from how it offers a response...

Meta AI is partnered with Microsoft's (MSFT) search engine, Bing, so it can provide its users with real-time web results. Anthropic's Claude is only trained up until December 2022, with some early 2023 knowledge. And until two weeks ago, ChatGPT was only trained on data up to September 2021.

So, Meta AI's ready access to current information gives it a leg up on some competing chatbots. That's not all, though.

The digital assistant is powered on the core principles behind Llama 2, which is Meta's most recent large language model ("LLM"). An LLM is an AI model that can generate texts and images. It's a key part in making an AI chatbot or image generator.

Meta AI uses this technology – but it runs on more refined conversation data than Llama 2 does. This allows the chatbot to have a friendlier, more human-like tone, instead of sounding robotic like other AIs.

But Meta didn't stop there...

To capitalize on, well, the fun of an AI chatbot, Meta created 28 other AI characters to serve as personality-focused digital assistants. While Meta AI on its own is a straightforward, stereotypical chatbot, these characters have more "opinions" and specific interests. You can see 25 of the 28 below...

Does anyone look familiar? If so, that's because celebrities and influencers are behind some of the AI characters. To quickly name a few...

  • Tom Brady portrays Bru, a wisecracking sports debater,
  • Snoop Dogg is a choose-your-own adventure Dungeon Master, and
  • Paris Hilton plays Amber, a mystery-solving detective.

So far, all the characters besides Meta AI, Bru, and Perry (Chris Paul's pro golfer) are limited to knowledge before 2023. So, if you use one of the characters, some responses may still be dated. But Meta plans to bring Bing to all of its characters.

"Our view is that people are going to want to interact with a bunch of different AIs for the different things that you want to do," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

It's likely that view will pay off.

Even with all of these features, we're still in the early innings for Meta AI... and for generative AI overall. The virtual assistant is currently in beta, which means that Meta is still working out its kinks. User feedback and interactions with the chatbot will improve the model.

So, although Meta AI isn't currently trained on public data, it most likely will be. Meta will have plenty of interactions to train the chatbot with.

As I said before, Meta AI is available on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. These are incredibly popular social media platforms. According to Statista, WhatsApp and Instagram both had 2 billion monthly active users in January of this year, and Messenger had nearly a billion.

Because these apps are so widely used, Meta AI could very well be many people's first experience with an AI chatbot. And because it's specially made to be user friendly, it could also become the one most people prefer to use.

So, while ChatGPT may have started the battle of the AI chatbots... Meta could very well win the chatbot war.

Regards,

Louis Navellier


Editor's note: Imagine if you could predict the share prices of 3,000 stocks, 21 trading days into the future... with a success rate up to 82%. That's the new mission Louis is taking on – thanks to a powerful AI system. It's called "The New Intelligence." And it's designed to take his pioneering work in growth stock over the past 40 years to a new level... for an entirely new type of investing.

Last night, Louis held a live demo of how it works. And he even revealed the No. 1 stock he believes you should buy immediately... If you missed it, watch the replay here.

Further Reading

"As generative AI becomes readily available, businesses everywhere will build it into their own workflows, products, and services," Mike Barrett says. This technology can't solve every problem. But its potential uses are growing. And as investors, we want to watch for companies that are adopting it in a few key ways... Read more here.

Even as excitement builds over AI, a lot of folks worry that AI will turn into a job-killer. This fear is likely exaggerated, though. Over the long run, embracing AI will set us up for more benefits than shunning it – for several reasons... Learn more here.