Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dropped a hint at the company’s development of AI personas earlier this year, revealing that a team was working on text-based experiences within Messenger and WhatsApp and image-based experiences within Instagram. It signaled Meta’s big plans for generative AI, which Zuckerberg said would be a part of all its popular messaging apps. While the company had not fully embraced generative AI at the time, Zuckerberg stated unequivocally that AI chatbots and other generative AI models would soon be popping up all over Meta’s apps. Now, Meta has unveiled a horde of AI-powered bots for WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.

The company’s answer to ChatGPT, Bing Chat, and Google Bard is known as Meta AI, which relies on Llama 2 to answer your questions, and it does this by searching the internet for information, thanks to Meta’s partnership with Bing. In the future, Meta AI will also be released for Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Quest 3, according to the company’s blog post.

Meta promotes its new AI chatbot as a handy tool for planning a trip with friends in a WhatsApp group chat. Just type “@MetaAI /imagine” followed by your specific query or prompt, and Meta AI will do the rest.

As for Instagram, a couple of new AI editing features are making their way to add magic to your images, powered by Emu’s technology. One tool is called “Restyle,” which is designed to add visual effects to your photos based on the text description you provide. Meanwhile, “Backdrop” replaces an image background with something you like. For example, you can ask Instagram to surround your photo with puppies, and an AI-generated image will appear.

Alongside its AI chatbot and image editor, Meta has officially introduced AI stickers, powered by Llama 2 and Emu. This tool was previously spotted in a beta test on WhatsApp for Android, allowing users to enter a text prompt and generating stickers that closely match the description. AI stickers will be available for select English-language users over the next month in WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and Facebook Stories.

Meta also revealed a slew of new AI chatbots, each with their own distinct personality and based on celebrities such as Charli D’Amelio, Chris Paul, MrBeast, Kendall Jenner, and 24 others. Some of these AI characters have already gone into beta in the United States, and Meta promises to add more in the coming weeks.

The new AI chatbots could help the company compete with other tech giants in two ways. For one, chatbots can keep users entertained and coming back for more by offering fun and interactive experiences, such as playing games, telling stories, and providing recommendations. Another is how they demonstrate Meta’s AI prowess, which is a key area of competition with other tech giants like Microsoft and Google.

Meta’s plans for generative AI are ambitious, but the company has the resources and expertise to make them happen. If it succeeds, it could change the way we interact with social media and other online platforms in the future.