Meta AI is fun, accessible, and free. Maybe it’s finally time to make AI chatbots part of your life

Meta’s AI assistant came as a surprise when I had almost forgotten about the existence of these chatbots. Completely free to use, Meta AI resides inside WhatsApp, the app I use most in everyday life. And that is exactly why over the past week I have used this chatbot more than others over the past two years. This in-app integration could finally help familiarise many users with GenAI exactly because of this aspect. Here are the things I like and didn’t like about Meta’s AI chatbot.

Ability to generate images

Meta AI can generate and animate images (Express Photo)

Images created using AI have been a controversial topic, and there is definitely a need for standards regarding content provenance and ownership. However, in the context of sending AI-generated images to friends and family using a chat app like WhatsApp, this one seems harmless. Meta’s AI and its ability to generate images by typing a “description” make emojis so much fun. It’s safe too—the “Imagine with AI” label ensures the image is created using AI. For example, I typed, “imagine a photograph of a cat having fun in a pool in the summer.” In seconds, Meta AI created a convincing image. I felt Meta AI was faster in creating AI images than other image generators, which can take up to a minute to create an AI image. Sure, there are plenty of AI image generators, but having a feature built right into a chat app makes a lot of sense. Clearly, Meta is giving a large user base a user-friendly way to experiment with AI image generation without the risk of copying another artist’s style. The more users generate AI images and send them in messages, the more they become familiar with GenAI. To me, this may become Meta’s gateway to massify GenAI.

Good at finding recipes

Meta AI can also be your personal chef (Express Photo)

I am not into food blogging, nor do I enjoy watching cooking videos online. However, it often happens that I hear about a specialty dish I had eaten in a restaurant and, out of curiosity, want to know the recipe. I remember watching a viral video of Deepika Padukone where she mentioned Ema Datshi, Bhutan’s national dish. It was a simple and easy-to-make dish at home. So, I asked Meta’s AI assistant to find a recipe for Ema Datshi. Meta pulled up the exact recipe I had seen in videos on social media. The good thing about Meta AI is that it shows the ingredients and instructions in an easy-to-digest format, without unnecessary information. I asked the AI assistant for a recipe that could be prepared at home with minimal ingredients and in less than 10 minutes. Meta AI responded with a recipe for Ema Datshi, which is super easy to prepare. But at this point, I wanted more options, so I typed, “ask for more suggestions.” Meta AI then came up with five recipes that can be made in less than 10 minutes. It was a major time saver, as I didn’t have to scroll through pages of food blogs or find videos on YouTube.

You can use it for tech shopping

Meta can help you in choose between iOS and Android (Express Photo)

When it comes to shopping for a tech product, I do not trust unreliable sources, especially AI chatbots, which have irked me in the past due to their limited knowledge and inability to search for up-to-date information. However, since Meta’s AI assistant uses Google Search and Bing to fetch results, I was willing to give it a try and see how it fares in shopping.

I told Meta AI that I currently own an iPhone 13 mini and am looking for a new phone under Rs 50,000. Meta produced a list of smartphones that can be bought under Rs 50,000. The recommendations were good and included a mix of both the newest phones and older smartphones. I was not expecting that, honestly. I quizzed Meta AI with many questions, and the AI assistant gave me the precise answers I was looking for. For instance, I asked Meta, “Should I switch to Android considering I use iMessage on my iPhone?” and Meta responded with this:

“If you’re deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem and rely heavily on iMessage, switching to Android might not be the most seamless experience. iMessage is exclusive to Apple devices, so you won’t be able to use it on an Android phone.”

I found the answer satisfactory. For context, Meta AI also recommended chat apps like WhatsApp and Telegram that are cross-platform and work on both iOS and Android, but I never felt it was forcing me to use only WhatsApp or suggesting it was better than iMessage.

Summarise articles

A lot of the time, if I am late to an event or need to catch a flight, I prefer to read short summaries rather than full news articles. It’s more convenient, even though sometimes depth is missing, but you still get the relevant information. I asked Meta to summarise a news article published on indianexpress.com titled “Indians spending more on foreign travel.” I cut and pasted the URL into my prompt, and Meta was able to summarise the article. The summary was not bare bones; it included all the necessary context, such as why Indians are travelling more, the reasons behind it, and the supporting numbers.

However, I found that Meta didn’t produce precise summaries of articles when it was an interview with many flowing quotes. I asked Meta to summarise an article I wrote during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference last month, which was based on a roundtable with the media and top executives. Instead of summarising my article, Meta came up with a generic summary detailing Apple Intelligence features, far from what the article was about. To my surprise, Meta relied on other publications’ articles to pull results for the summary. The problematic part was that those articles lacked original reporting and did not even cover the discussion Apple’s executives had with the media, talking about all things Apple Intelligence. The only common thing between them and my article was the keyword “WWDC 2024.”

A search engine

For me, though, perhaps the biggest test for Meta AI was whether it can come close to Google in search queries. However, after spending some time with Meta’s AI assistant, I would say it’s definitely not replacing Google anytime soon but does basic search tasks well. For instance, I asked Meta to look up the nearest Bata store. It then asked me to share my current location or the city where I am, and when I did, it provided information about the nearest Bata stores around the location I specified. The results were correct, and the locations of the stores were in and around my home. Because I am familiar with my location, I can trust the results Meta AI came up with. However, I am not sure whether I can fully trust Meta if I am in a new city. I would still rely on Google. Another reason to go with Google search is that Meta does not show the location on a map, which is usually the first thing I do to find out how far the store is from my hotel.

Next, I asked Meta to find the best Chinese restaurants nearby. In response to my request, the chatbot replied it was already aware about my location but needed to know the preference I had in Chinese food.

“To recommend the best Chinese restaurants nearby, could you please tell me if you’re looking for a specific type of Chinese cuisine (like Szechuan or Cantonese), or if you have a preferred price range or dining experience (like delivery, takeaway, or dine-in)?”

Meta’s AI seemed chatty and it kept learning about my behavior to come up with precise results.

Awesome, dine-in it is! What kind of Chinese cuisine are you in the mood for? Are you looking for a fancy restaurant or a casual, cosy spot to enjoy your meal?
When I told Meta I was looking for a dine-in option, it recommended a few choices. However, except for one, none of them were great options. So I switched back to Google and used the web search I am familiar with to find better options. The point is that Google’s search engine is better for these types of search tasks because I can expand the search and keep refining it until I find exactly what I’m looking for. I can search for Chinese restaurants on Zomato or decide to opt for home delivery instead of dining in.

What do I make for Meta’s AI assistant

I am still learning what Meta AI is capable of, and I have yet to fully trust the AI chatbot for the things I am looking for. I am pretty sure I can use AI assistants for summarising articles, generating AI images, and changing the tone of an email to make it more professional. However, I can’t trust Meta AI chatbot or any of its rivals for getting daily news and web searches, simply because even the smartest AI chatbots aren’t good with facts and numbers. Does that mean I am ditching Meta AI completely? Probably not. I can’t avoid Meta’s AI assistant, and neither can you. It’s included in WhatsApp and that too for free. Perhaps it will only make us care more about AI chatbots, despite Meta’s shady history and its data harvesting policies.