I used Meta AI on WhatsApp and it instantly became my ultimate digital sidekick!

Meta AI: Oh, I'm peachy! I mean, what's not to be great when I'm stuck in this digital realm, answering the same questions over and over again?

This is what Meta AI answered when I instructed it to be sarcastic with me. I have to say, it was definitely wittier than Google Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Late to the AI race in Silicon Valley, Mark Zuckerberg has rolled out Meta AI for some users across the globe. OpenAI's ChatGPT, the pioneer AI chatbot, shook up the tech scene back in 2022, which was then followed by Microsoft's Copilot and Google's Bard (now Gemini). While they did bring their own expertise, Meta has tried something totally different. I got early access to the Meta AI chatbot and discovered a lot of different things.

1. How can you access it?

If you have access to it on your device, you will see a blue hollow circle in the top right corner of the app. You simply need to tap on it to start chatting. You can also search for "Meta AI" in search bar in WhatsApp. 

In case you still don't get it, it is okay because it is still being rolled out in a phased manner.

It told me that it can understand 13 Indian languages including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

2. How is Meta AI different?

One of the best advantages that Zuckerberg has with this AI chatbot is that it is a free of cost AI tool baked into platforms that already have billions of daily users such as WhatsApp and Instagram. Hence, you don't have to download any particular app to get access to it.

3. Meta AI can generate free images

It can create images for free and that too as many as you want. All you need to do is write "/imagine" and write your prompt. However, the images were not accurate as I could see discrepancies in the face and limbs at times, but overall, it did a good job.

Meta has made sure that the viewer knows the image is AI-generated. They do that by putting a watermark. Placed at the bottom left corner, the watermark says "With AI Imagined". You can save this picture if you want or forward it to other chats or platforms. One thing that you need to keep in mind is that it will not create images of popular personalities like Elon Musk or Taylor Swift or Narendra Modi.

4. Getting there but not perfect

To check the accuracy I gave two prompts to the chatbot: "Give me details of flights from Delhi to Mumbai for tomorrow" and "Can you tell me the live music gigs happening around me tonight?"

For the first one, it gave me 4 options: Cheapest flight, earliest, latest and fastest". It also shared its source of information via a link to that particular website. I cross-checked the data with the site, and it was accurate.

For the second prompt, the chatbot asked me a follow-up question about my location, which I felt was good since other chatbots don't do that. When I gave the location, it gave me four events in my cities and neighboring areas, but they were not taking place on that particular night. I cross-checked with the given source, and the dates differed. I also gave Hindi prompts, where it performed well, but it didn't work when it came to generating images.

Honestly, I feel that as a first gen-product, it is quite good but not perfect if that is what you were expecting.

5. Summon it on WhatsApp groups

If you have access to the chatbot on WhatsApp, you can summon it by writing "@MetaAI", just like you do for other members of the group. You can give it prompts like Can you plan a three-day trip for me from Delhi, or tell us a joke, or generate an image of a family of 5 dancing to dhol beats. However, keep in mind that the chatbot won't know the context unless you explicitly explain it. 

6. Election, politics-related queries

While it answered basic election queries like "What is Lok Sabha election in India", it didn't answer when I asked "when is the election in New Delhi". It instead responded saying, " Thanks for asking. For voting information please go to https://elections24.eci.gov.in" leading me to Election Commission of India website. This will show up whenever you ask a question that is even remotely close to elections.

If you ask questions about a political leader or party, it won't answer but direct you to the same website. The response read, "This question may pertain to a political figure during general elections, please refer to the link…"

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