**Mark Zuckerberg: “Becoming AI Leader This Year”**
Meta, the social media company, plans to launch its chatbot, Meta AI, as a standalone app to compete with ChatGPT and Gemini. According to CNBC’s report on the 27th, Meta Platforms—the parent company of Facebook—intends to release the Meta AI app in the second quarter, a project that has been kept secret internally.
Meta AI, first introduced in September 2023, is a generative AI-based assistant that provides responses and generates images based on user prompts. Unlike independent apps like ChatGPT, Meta AI has been integrated into social media platforms operated by Meta, such as Facebook and WhatsApp, offering conversation and search features.
Launching the Meta AI standalone app is interpreted as a move to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. CNBC suggests that this app launch is an important step towards CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s goal of becoming a frontrunner in the AI field by the end of the year. He stated during last month’s quarterly earnings release that “this year will be when intelligent and personalized AI assistants reach over a billion people,” expressing his expectation that Meta AI will lead this advancement. Meta AI currently has about 700 million monthly active users.
Additionally, Zuckerberg agreed with a user’s comment on Threads last month that there is a “need for a standalone app for Meta AI.” It has also been reported that Meta plans to introduce a subscription service for its AI, similar to how OpenAI and Google provide advanced features as paid services.