• by Colin Kirkland , July 30, 2024

Meta is beginning to roll out its new AI Studio platform in the U.S., which was built using the company's latest artificial intelligence (AI) Llama 3.1. model.

Meta describes the AI Studio “as a place for people to create, share and discover AIs,” but more specifically, will allow creators to make an AI version of themselves to engage more followers.

“You can use a wide variety of prompt templates or start from scratch to make an AI that teaches you how to cook, helps you with your Instagram captions, generates memes to make your friends laugh – the possibilities are endless,” Meta writes in a blog post. “Your AI can be just for you, or you can share it with your followers and friends, and even make it available for anyone to discover and chat with on Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and web.”

Using “AI chats,” people can customize their AI character’s name, personality, tone, avatar and tagline,” the company says.

In an attempt to help facilitate more creator engagement, Meta is making it possible for Instagram creators to set up an AI extension of themselves that is able to answer common DM questions and story replies from fans, whether it is “sharing facts about themselves or linking to their favorite brands and past videos.”

Meta first tested these AI creators last month, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckberg stating that as the technology matures, “creators are going to have a lot more opinion over what they want the AI to express for them.” Right now, however, creators can customize their AI based on their Instagram content, decide which topics they want it to avoid and choose who their AI replies to.

The tech giant has repeatedly said that it wants users to know they are interacting with a bot and not the actual creator, labeling responses accordingly.

While customer support and ecommerce support are key areas of focus for this first generation of AI Studio creator avatars, it is unclear how many creators will make AI extensions of themselves, or more importantly, how users will react to an influx of bots on Meta's family of apps.