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    Home » Sections » AI and machine learning » Meta launches standalone AI assistant

    Meta launches standalone AI assistant

    Facebook parent Meta Platforms has launched a separate app for its Meta AI assistant.
    By Agency Staff30 April 2025
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    Meta launches standalone AI assistantFacebook parent Meta Platforms has launched a separate app for its Meta AI assistant, similar to those offered by Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI.

    The standalone app comes as Meta looks to boost the AI assistant’s usage, apart from being available within the company’s family of platforms — WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.

    It also signals CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s move to strengthen the company’s position in the competitive AI landscape, taking on major rivals such as OpenAI and Google.

    The Instagram owner is set to report its first-quarter results on Wednesday after markets close

    Meta’s separate app will provide more personalised responses based on context and other user-specific elements related to the user’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.

    Llama 4, Meta’s latest large language model, powers the Meta AI assistant and is designed to rival the latest AI models from OpenAI, Google, Deepseek and Anthropic, with improved reasoning, multilingual capabilities and efficiency.

    The new app will integrate with Meta’s AI glasses and merge with the existing companion app, the company said.

    Meta hosted its first-ever AI developer event, dubbed LlamaCon, on Tuesday, which centred on its Llama family of AI models.

    Reasoning

    The Instagram owner is set to report its first-quarter results on Wednesday after markets close.

    Meta will start testing a paid subscription for the AI chatbot’s advanced versions in the second quarter, Reuters reported in February. However, the subscription service might not rake in meaningful revenue until next year at the earliest, a source had said.

    Read: Zuckerberg eyed Instagram spinoff from Meta

    Meta AI, which was launched in September 2023, is a virtual assistant that uses large language models to perform reasoning tasks.  — Akash Sriram, (c) 2025 Reuters

    Get breaking news from TechCentral on WhatsApp. Sign up here.

    Don’t miss:

    Meta to build world’s longest subsea broadband cable – and South Africa is included

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