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Editor's take: If you like all the "must have" AI features companies have forced on you lately, you'll love Meta's AI Studio. The tool lets you create a chatbot with any personality you want, including yourself, so you never have to talk to friends and family again. Don't worry. You don't have to use it, but prepare for a deluge of dumb from your friends, family, and favorite content creators.
On Monday, Meta announced the rollout of AI Studio in the United States, a platform designed to enable users to create, share, and discover AI characters. The company initially unveiled the idea in February 2023 and demoed it September. Built with Llama 3.1, AI Studio offers a dynamic space for creativity and interaction, allowing anyone to build AI characters tailored to their interests and share them with a broader audience.
The creator is available on the Instagram app or AI Studio website. Users can design AI characters from scratch or use various prompt templates. While plenty of pre-trained characters exist, users can make a custom chatbot to fit their needs. Whether it's an AI that provides cooking lessons, generates humorous memes, or assists with Instagram captions, there is plenty of wiggle room to get creative. Meta claims it is even possible for users to train a chatbot to mimic their personality. Users can keep their AI characters private or share them with friends, followers, and the broader community across Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and the web.
To create a character, start a new message on Instagram and tap "Create an AI chat." Users can personalize the AI character's name, personality, tone, avatar, and tagline from there. Meta provides a detailed step-by-step guide with tips to help make the AI characters seem real – AI hallucinations be damned.
Meta highlighted some pre-made AI characters early users have created:
- Eat Like You Live There! by Chef Marc Murphy offers tips on local dining customs for travelers.
- What Lens Bro by photographer and videographer Angel Barclay provides advice on selecting the perfect lens.
- Flip Pawsitive Affirmation Dog by actor and pet advocate Rocky Kanaka delivers personalized positive affirmations.
- Sammy The Stress Ball by meme creator Assistants vs. Agents helps users manage work stress.
Meta is pushing hard for Instagram creator support. It says AI Studio presents content creators and influencers with the opportunity to extend their reach and enhance fan interaction. Influencer chatbots can quickly answer common direct message questions, share personal facts, and link to favorite brands or past content. Creators can customize their artificial stand-ins based on their existing Instagram content, topics to avoid, and preferred links. They can also manage auto-replies and decide who their AI responds to through the professional dashboard in the Instagram app.
Thankfully, responses from AI personas are clearly labeled as such for transparency. Meta says it has implemented policies and protections to ensure that interacting with AIs remains safe, fun, and helpful. The launch marks the first step in Meta's vision of filling social media feeds with everything AI.