When you can DM a bot, who needs to DM friends?
People from all over the internet discovered a new addition to their Instagram account on Friday. It was Meta AI, the company’s general-purpose chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. It has the ability to respond to inquiries, create poetry, and generate photos with a simple text cue being provided. Not surprisingly, this move was made. Meta AI was first introduced to the public in September 2023, and the company has spent the past few months integrating the chatbot into various platforms, such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Therefore, integrating it into Instagram appears to be a natural progression.
Just got access to Meta AI on one of my Instagram accounts. pic.twitter.com/VNyRa5wbG4
— Krish Murjani  (@appleforever18) April 11, 2024
Engadget was informed by a spokeswoman for Meta that “our generative AI-powered experiences are under development in various phases, and we’re testing a range of them publicly in a limited capacity.” This statement implies that the functionality is not currently accessible to all users. According to TechCrunch, which was the first to report on the story, Meta AI was being displayed in the search box of Instagram itself. From the perspective of some of us here at Engadget, however, the feature was actually displayed in the search bar within the Direct Messaging inbox on Instagram.
In the same way that I would direct message a buddy on Instagram, tapping it allowed me to initiate a conversation with Meta AI. I was able to ask the chatbot to provide me with definitions of words, provide suggestions for headlines for certain stories that I am currently working on, and develop graphic representations of dogs riding skateboards. On top of that, I was able to request that Meta AI make recommendations for reels that featured cats, which it did without any difficulty.
Nevertheless, when my colleague Aaron Souppouris asked Meta AI in WhatsApp to recommend Reels, it showed him some Reels in that app as well. This indicates that the bot on Instagram isn’t actually doing anything that is particular to Instagram. Meta, on the other hand, is only incorporating the same chatbot into each and every program that it owned.
When you tap a hamburger menu within the bot, Meta AI will also provide a lengthy list of the many actions that you can request the bot to carry out depending on your preferences.
The reason that you would want a chatbot on Instagram to offer advice on how to deal with credit card debit, have a discussion about whether exercise or weights is more effective, or offer advice on how to travel with points is something that I do not understand. However, the truth is that you are able to do so if you so choose.