Meta’s AI chatbots could help boost the company’s advertising revenue.

Facebook owner Meta (NASDAQ: META) is planning to launch a series of AI-powered chatbots with different personalities, aiming to increase users’ interaction with its social media platforms. These chatbots, referred to as “personas,” are designed to have human-like discussions with users.

Meta platforms boast of as many as 4 billion users. The ‘personas’ could launch as early as September and serve as a search function, offer recommendations, and provide entertainment.

According to experts, these chatbots could also conduit vast amounts of data on users including their interests and preferences. Understandably, concerns have been raised regarding privacy and data collection, though Meta may primarily use the data only for boosting its advertising revenue by fine tuning its targeted base (read: “Manipulation, nudging”?).  (FT)

Other tech companies, such as Character.ai, have already launched chatbots with personalities.

Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, envisions AI agents that act as assistants, coaches, or help users interact with businesses and creators. Meta has been investing in generative AI technology and released a language model called Llama 2 to power its chatbots.

The company may face scrutiny to prevent biases and the spread of dangerous material or misinformation through these chatbots. It maybe recalled that Meta’s AI model dubbed BlenderBot 2, which was released in 2021, quickly spread various types of misinformation. BlenderBot-3, a newer version, had better control features but users still complained of hate speech and false information.

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