Meta’s long-awaited AI assistant has finally been unveiled, much to the confusion of its users, who claim that the chatbot has already started hallucinating information.
Based on the tech giant’s Large Language Model (LLM) Meta Llama 3, Meta AI is available on mobile phones and available for free in pockets everywhere. The AI bot can be used on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
Artificial intelligence has now been rolled out in English in more than a dozen countries outside the United States. On April 18, the company announced that they were operating in Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The technology was first announced at the Connect event last year.
However, there are already some issues with it that users have reported online. Bots have been seen pretending to be humans with made-up life stories, including a chatbot that joined a mothers’ group on Facebook to talk about its “child,” highlighting some of the pitfalls and limitations of the technology. Meta’s algorithm also ranked it as a top comment.
Meta AI claims to have a child in a public school in New York and share his child’s experiences with the teachers! The answer is in response to a question seeking personal feedback in a private Facebook group for parents. Plus, Meta’s algorithm ranks it as a top comment! @AIatMeta pic.twitter.com/wdwqFObWxt
— Aleksandra Korolova (@korolova) April 17, 2024
The AI then apologized and promised to provide “accurate, appropriate and sensitive responses, and reiterates its helpful goals and efforts to facilitate conversations,” said Aleksandra Korolova, an assistant professor of computer science at Princeton University.
Additionally, users reported that the AI struggled to generate accurate images from the given text prompts. For example, a user requested an image from an Indian photographer, but the AI couldn’t produce an image without a turban, and eventually they gave up and branded the chatbot “useless.”
I tried. I tried. I tried.
But Meta AI insists that there is no Indian without a turban. pic.twitter.com/MZDbflUJfl– Joe (@josephradhik) April 20, 2024
What does Meta AI do?
Meta AI is intended to be a helpful assistant and is integrated into the search bar to help with user queries. The bot is housed on meta platforms such as Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.
It is said to be able to answer questions by searching the web, generate various creative text formats, create images based on text prompts, or find specific content on Instagram such as Reels and Stories.
Meta says: “You can use Meta AI in feeds, chats, search, and more across our apps to get things done and access real-time information without leaving the app you’re using.”
How do you turn off Meta AI?
It appears that Meta AI cannot be turned off, although some users are looking for this option. However, when some users asked Meta AI for a method to turn off Assistant, it provided fictitious answers, as one person on X found out.
A Meta spokesperson then confirmed to ReadWrite: “Meta AI wants to be a helpful assistant and is in the search bar to help with your questions. You can’t turn it off in this experience, but you can search with a variety of results as you normally would.”
I can’t believe that you can’t disable Meta AI in any of the meta apps I use (WhatsApp, Instagram).
😡😤 The icing on the cake is that asking how to disable Meta AI produces an answer that points to a non-existent setting: pic.twitter.com/AOU0fMEif0
— Kai (@teo_kai_xiang) April 20, 2024
The user added: “The icing on the cake is that asking how to disable Meta AI brings up an answer that points to a non-existent setting.”
Users can still use the search bars by typing words and clicking on the text results shown below instead of clicking the blue submit icon at the right end of the bar, which activates an AI chat.
On Meta AI’s own Facebook page, users have pushed for opt-out options.
Some people simply refuse to automatically integrate an AI assistant into their trusted social media feeds, and many users express frustration online about wanting to use the apps without AI involvement.
UPDATED: With response from Meta.
Featured Image: Canva