That clearly exposed the question mark zuckerbergfounder of Meta, in the cart to shareholders that a few days ago he sent on the occasion of the presentation of his company’s quarterly results:
“There’s been a narrative that’s developed where we’re somehow moving away from our focus on the metaverse, so I just want to say up front that that’s not accurate. We have focused on both AI and the metaverse for years and will continue to focus on both.”
The old Facebook is redoubling its commitment to AI, although, in principle, without neglecting the metaverse. Or, perhaps more clearly stated, begins to put his authority in the field of artificial intelligence on the tablewhere he has spent years researching and opening the way but without giving as much hype and template as his virtual reality proposal.
And it is that, although since 2013 Facebook has its own department of Artificial Intelligence guilty, among other things, that the reels of Instagram hit so much with your interests, it has not been until almost now with LLaMa primero —its language model designed for researchers— and SAM —capable of recognizing its own entities and meanings within an image—, when Meta has begun to launch its own initiatives, still far from being products.
The next step, already for December, seems to be heading towards a model focused on the generation of texts and creatives for ad campaignssomething that would match 100% with its current main business line: advertising, far above the metaverse and AI itself, although it does not sound as good as leitmotiv for a company weighed down by scandals.
But where could this turn go, and at what point does it really affect his plans for the metaverse, which became the Holy Grail only a few months ago? Can Meta be the true rival of OpenAI, Microsoft and Google in this race?
Everything seems to indicate yes.
Artificial Intelligence with Instagram and WhatsApp, the power of Meta
In that presentation of results, which came after the tens of thousands of layoffs that the company has faced, a figure was dropped that was heard when it was named with the same intensity and the same enthusiasm as a stone thrown from the top of a well. .
Since Meta presented its naive plan on a metaverse of avatars in October 2021, the company has lost $4 billion along the way.
4,000 million that in practice are summarized in several simulated videos and a handful of products headed by his augmented reality glasses/helmet heirs to the Oculus, the Meta Quest 2.
And despite this, it could not be said that his results were bad. Its income grows 3%, although the profit fell 28%, but with an increase in active users.
In Zuckerberg’s letter to investors, despite his initial approach, there are some aspects that make it clear that the focus is being changed. In her “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI” is mentioned a total of 26 times, for the 8 times of “Metaverse”.
Today the picture is clearer. With the distraction of the company’s rebranding and Zuckerberg’s focus on the metaverse, Meta was slow to build the infrastructure it needed to bring these types of AI capabilities to the table, leading to spending billions. dollars in renewing its data centers in recent quarters.
How AI can reach Instagram or WhatsApp
Zuckerberg said that generative AI “is going to touch every one of our products” and hinted at how the technology could specifically accelerate WhatsApp’s nascent customer support business aimed at businesses. “Once the ability for tens of millions of AI agents to act on behalf of a company or service is activated, they will be able to scale their customer service services tremendously,” he said.
“We are exploring chat experiences on WhatsApp and Messenger, visual authoring tools for Facebook and Instagram posts and ads, as well as multi-modal and video experiences over time,” Zuckerberg said on the results call.
“I hope these tools will be valuable to everyone from everyday people to creators to businesses.. For example, I expect there will be a lot of interest in AI agents for business messaging and customer service once we get that experience. Over time, this will also extend to our work in the metaverse, where people will be able to create much simpler avatars, objects, worlds, and code to tie them all together.”
The already many transformations of Facebook
This more or less clear change of focus from the metaverse towards Artificial Intelligence should not leave behind that the old Facebook has not only moved in search of new technological or business windows, but also to escape being the protagonist of several of the most scandals. important in the digital age.
This week we learned that the Cambridge Analytica case will result in a new $725 million fine that may also result in individual payments to more than 87 million people who joined in a class action lawsuit.
Similarly, it is also about industrial change. In its transformation from Facebook to Meta, it pivoted from its most profitable businesses, social networks with Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and its advertising business, towards the incipient Virtual and Augmented Reality market that it represented with its small Oculus division. And now, Artificial Intelligence.
It’s an industry shift because while Facebook continues to deliver scandal-proof financial results, the social media market for them seems to be stagnating. Facebook (the social network) has long since stopped attracting young users and Instagram, although it is experiencing its heyday, may be a future reflection of what its parent network was.