• by Colin Kirkland , June 28, 2024

Following TikTok's development of virtual influencers, Meta is launching the first test of its “AI Studio” platform -- which will allow Instagram influencers to engage more users by creating AI versions of themselves, or “AI agents,” that are able to communicate with followers via direct-messaging.

According to an interview between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and YouTuber Kane Sutter, the tech giant has launched its first test of these AI creator tools with 50 creators. The company plans to roll out the test to more people over the next month.

Custom AI agents -- which are labeled by a star icon in the message tab, plus disclaimer notes informing users they are engaging with an AI bot -- are designed to answer user questions with the personality of the influencer account.

“Creators setting up these AIs have the opportunity to pull in all kinds of information from their social media presence and whatever else they want to train into the system,” said Zuckerberg, adding that as the technology matures, “creators are going to have a lot more opinion over what they want the AI to express for them.”

Zuckerberg made it clear in the interview that Meta wants users to know they are interacting with a bot and not the actual creator. “We want it to be as high fidelity to the creator as the creator wants, but it will also be very clearly labeled as an AI so there shouldn not be any confusion around that,” he said.

Creators will also be able to train their AI agents to avoid certain topics they don't want the virtual versions of themselves to engage with, as to not offend fans or represent the creator's brand inauthentically, especially in regards to opinion-based questions.

“It's going to be a pretty interesting experience to see how people like interacting with these AIs that their creators create,” Zuckerberg said, alluding to the possibility of the future possibility for Instagram users to create AI agents that represent any kind of virtual persona as well.

However, Zuckerberg centered the current test around practical use cases, including small businesses and brands being able to “press a few buttons and get an agent version of themselves that can do customer support and ecommerce support,” effectively covering more ground with less staff.

Meta's AI agent launch follows TikTok’s recent introduction of new additions to its Symphony Ad Suite, including customizable digital avatars designed for in-app promotions and automated dubbing for global translations. The ByteDance-owned company says its pre-built avatars use paid actors from a diverse range of backgrounds, nationalities and languages who are licensed for commercial use, offering brands “the control and power to scale their likeness.”