Why Meta's AI Personalities Might Just Be a Huge Game-Changer

The sci-fi era we all grew up watching is just around the corner and we can have a glimpse of it now

A Revolution in Digital Interaction

Last week, Meta has unveiled their AI personalities feature in a limited beta format, and the implications for the digital world are profound. After an in-depth exploration on WhatsApp, it's evident that this innovation might reshape our expectations of AI interactions and the Internet. Let's delve into the specifics to understand why

Diverse AI Personalities: An Evolved Interaction Paradigm

Rather than a monolithic AI presence like chat-gpt, Meta offers a suite of 20 distinct AI personalities. Each embodies various web celebrities' expertise and unique style, ranging from hip-hop aficionados to seasoned travel consultants and sports enthusiasts. This diversification transforms a user's experience from mere querying to genuine engagement, akin to consulting an expert in real-time. I personally harnessed these AI capabilities for a myriad of tasks, from travel workout routines to bespoke playlists, all with impressive speed and accuracy.

It was fun; it felt like talking to a real person, and surprisingly, it was very fast. The days of waiting ten seconds for chat-gpt to respond are gone. I don’t know how Meta managed it, but they did.

The future is near

The promise of these personalities extends beyond text. Imagine you are able to just talk to those bots like you talk to Siri, and them being able to respond to you with the real voice of the personalities they were trained on. All this is already possible with AI models like Whisper and others. It’s just very expensive to do today. But in a year or two?

Pair this with Meta's cutting-edge photorealistic avatars, and the lines between digital and reality become tantalizingly blurred.

Beyond Information: Catering to Human Connection

At its core, Meta's new feature doesn't just redefine information exchange; it taps into the innate human desire for connection.

After chatting with them for a few minutes, you can almost forget you are not talking with a real person. For good or for bad, in an age where people feel more lonely all the time, I can see how this can become a huge hit, even addicting to many people.

Last few observations:

• You can see that Meta made the bots answer more concisely. It makes sense, as these chats can be very expensive to run. But this is a limitation that will go away as the technology advances.

• The technology is not there yet, but imagine that tomorrow the bots also know you as well as Meta/FB knows you, tailoring their answers like a true friend will.

• I would love to see these bots also initiate a conversation with you. For example asking you how was your workout or following up on a trip you planned together - again, making them feel much more like a real person would act.

Did you get a chance to play with Meta’s AI personalities yourself? What did you think? COmment or write me back.