CALIFORNIA: Meta, the tech giant behind social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, is reportedly gearing up to create an advanced chatbot that rivals OpenAI’s GPT-4. According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta is actively acquiring AI training chips and expanding its data centers for this ambitious project.
The company intends to commence the training of this new language model in early 2024. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been a vocal advocate for providing free access to AI tools for businesses, making this development significant in the AI landscape.
To achieve this goal, Meta has been scaling up its infrastructure and investing in additional Nvidia H100 AI-training processors. This strategic move is aimed at ensuring that the new chatbot won’t require training on external cloud platforms, such as Microsoft’s Azure, as was the case with previous AI models.
Meta Establishes Dedicated Team
Reports suggest that Meta established a dedicated team earlier this year to expedite the development of AI capabilities capable of mimicking facial expressions. This aligns with the company’s broader push into generative AI capabilities.
While the specifics of Meta’s upcoming AI chatbot remain undisclosed, leaks from June hinted at the testing of an Instagram chatbot with 30 distinct personalities. This project bears resemblance to the recently reported deployment of various AI “personas” by Meta.
However, Meta has encountered challenges in retaining AI researchers, with resource allocation across multiple Large Language Model (LLM) projects contributing to this issue. The competition in the generative AI space is fierce, with tech giants vying for dominance.
OpenAI, for instance, stated in April that it had no immediate plans to train a GPT-5, but other companies are aggressively pursuing AI advancements. Apple is reportedly investing significant resources into its AI model called “Ajax,” which it believes surpasses even GPT-4 in capabilities.
Google and Microsoft have integrated AI into their productivity tools, with Google looking to leverage generative AI in its Google Assistant. Amazon, too, is actively engaged in generative AI initiatives, potentially leading to an Alexa-powered chatbot in the future.
