Meta Pilots AI Chatbot For Select Users In India

Social media juggernaut Meta is reportedly piloting a GenAI chatbot for Indian users across its three platforms – WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed the development to TechCrunch and said, “Our generative AI-powered experiences are under development in varying phases, and we’re testing a range of them publicly in a limited capacity.”

Inc42 could only verify the presence of such a chatbot for WhatsApp. The feature called ‘Meta AI’ is powered by the company’s open-source large language model, LLaMA (Large Language Model Meta AI). The offering is currently only available in English language. 

The snippet of the feature on WhatsApp notes that the chatbot allows users to “get answers to any question”, “see recommendations”, “find information” and “generate unique images”. 

While the social media said that private messages would remain end-to-end encrypted and would not be “read” by Meta, it added that users’ Al messages could be “used” by the company to improve Al quality. 

The India pilot comes months after the tech giant first unveiled Meta AI in September last year.

As per the report, the AI chatbot has also been rolled out selectively in parts of Africa as the company looks to push out and scale up its AI-powered offerings to retain existing and attract new users. The big tech major also reportedly recently commenced the testing of AI chatbots in the US.

While the growth has plateaued in the North American country, India and other developing markets continue to be Meta’s focus geographies. India continues to be its biggest market in terms of user base, with WhatsApp accounting for more than 500 Mn users in the country. 

On similar lines, Meta also reportedly boasts 362 Mn Instagram users and 314 Mn Facebook users in the country. 

The AI chatbot pilot in India will likely help the social media giant fine tune the offering and offer an even larger pool of user data to train its LLM. Additionally, the move will also help position the company better as its competitors OpenAI and Google continue to cash in on the GenAI mania and woo new users with differentiated offerings. 

The new pilot also comes close on the heels of reports stating that the social media giant was looking to establish its inaugural data centre in India at the Reliance Industries (RIL) campus located in Chennai. 

Facebook India saw its net profit rise 19% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 352 Cr in FY23, while total revenue jumped 20% to INR 2,776 Cr from INR 2,324 Cr in FY22.