AI has emerged as a bright spot for investments in the tech
industry, which has been struggling with slowing growth, and has cut thousands
of jobs as well as dialed down on experimental bets to beat the downturn.
"We're starting by pulling together a lot of the teams
working on generative AI across the company into one group focused on building
delightful experiences around this technology," Zuckerberg said in an Instagram
post.
"Over the longer term, we'll focus on developing AI
personas that can help people in a variety of ways," Zuckerberg said, but
for now "we're exploring experiences with text (chat in WhatsApp and
Messenger), with images (creative Instagram filters and ad formats), and with
video and multi-modal experiences."
The new product team will report to Chris Cox, Meta's chief
product officer, a company spokesperson confirmed. This will enable Meta to
more rapidly implement the AI research team's findings in Meta's products, the
spokesperson said
The public battle to dominate the AI technology space kicked
off late last year with the launch of Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT, which
has since prompted tech heavyweights from Alphabet to China's Baidu to announce
their own offerings.
Last week, Facebook-parent Meta said it was releasing a new
large language model LLaMA, the core software of a new AI system, which would
be available under non-commercial license to researchers and entities
affiliated with government, civil society and academia.
Shares of Meta closed down 0.5 percent on Monday. © Reuters