Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Meta Platforms is launching a standalone artificial intelligence app and going head-to-head with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, the company said Tuesday.
The news confirms previous CNBC reporting from February, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Meta launched an AI chatbot in September 2023, pitching it as a generative AI-powered digital assistant that can provide responses and create images based on user prompts within its existing apps. The company brought Meta AI to the forefront of its apps in April, when it replaced the search feature for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger with the chatbot.
Zuckerberg in January said he believes 2025 “is going to be the year when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than 1 billion people, and I expect Meta AI to be that leading AI assistant.”
Meta’s debut of a standalone Meta AI app follows similar efforts by Google and Elon Musk’s xAI. Those two companies recently released individual apps for their respective digital assistants Gemini and Grok.
Meta AI has roughly 700 million active monthly users, Meta finance chief Susan Li said in January. That was up from 600 million in December.
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