Meta, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company behind Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and the Quest VR headset, has unveiled a shiny new website. This is just like any other popular site that millions of people use every day, but this site is trying to make even more profit from your personal data.
No, it’s not Flash in the Pan , Microsoft Bing AI (now Copilot), and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. What is that goal? According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it will be “the most intelligent AI assistant at people’s disposal around the world.”
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. However, while both Threads and Meta AI Assistant are clearly challengers to other very popular and established services, these are two very different beasts. But will the latter suffer the same Icarus-like fate after flying too close to the sun? perhaps.
Do you remember the thread? No? – You are not alone
Of course, Threads are not actually Dead—not dead yet anyway. But the service has fallen significantly from the hype of its launch window, when it reportedly gained over 100 million users in just five days, making it the fastest growing app in history.
At its peak in July 2023, Threads had 49.3 million daily active users. As of August 2023, that number is estimated to be close to 10.3 million daily active users, with users spending on average around 3 minutes per day on the app. I am.
Compare and contrast this with a service that was built to collapse.Based on the same August 2023 data, his daily active users on Twitter/X are estimated to be over 100 million, and his average user spend is 30.9 minutes per day in apps.
Even during Twitter’s most turbulent times, including a split under new ownership and a complete rebrand, Meta’s replacements failed to thread the needle. All of this is done in partnership with sister app Instagram, a platform with over 2 billion users in total.
What does this have to do with meta-AI? First of all, Threads, while ambitious, was effectively a direct imitation of Twitter/X. And if you check out Meta AI’s new homepage, you’ll also notice that it looks like a direct copy of the much more popular and established ChatGPT.
Meta’s intentions are clear. The company wants its AI to be in the middle of the conversation for its AI assistants, even if it means boldly taking on the biggest names in the scene. And it seems pretty familiar.
Of course, meta AI is not completely without opportunities. This is actually a pretty impressive service, available for free and accessible from multiple platforms owned by Meta.
Meta AI is available on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and has its own website for broader access. This allows Meta AI to command top dollar in front of billions of viewers that other services could only dream of.
But marketing isn’t the only thing that will make Meta’s AI venture a success. Meta AI is powered by the company’s latest Llama 3 model, his cutting-edge LLM with 8B and 70B parameters capable of chatbot-like interaction, image/animation generation, and seamless search integration.
I don’t want to take too much away from the meta on this subject. Meta AI seems like a really useful tool designed to provide existing Meta account holders with an AI-powered in-app solution to address many needs.
In fact, I expect Meta AI to get off to a pretty strong start, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this LLM garners a lot of attention and engagement in the first few weeks of launch. Just like Threads did.
What was frustrating for Meta about the thread was that it had little impact on Twitter/X as expected. Rather than drive people away from the Elon Musk-owned social media platform, it just sucked a little bit of attention away from Instagram users.
ChatGPT is estimated to receive approximately 1.8 billion monthly visitors through its website alone. OpenAI’s chatbot is also available on iOS and Android, and has helped power a variety of products, including Solos AirGo 3 smart glasses and more recently, Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a).
Regardless of Meta AI’s backing or potential platform, it’s quite a hill to climb if it hopes to dethrone ChatGPT as the most popular AI assistant currently available. And just like when Threads took on his Twitter/X, Meta may have bitten off more than he could chew, taking on the overwhelming popularity of chatbots.
Outlook
Threads has opened the door for attention, but what else do you expect when a service is directly linked to one of the most popular social media platforms of all time? It is logical to think that Meta AI will follow suit, as it is linked to several other Meta’s biggest properties.
But despite this, Threads was unable to retain its users, even though it gave its user base the instant gratification of all their followers migrating to the new platform. Some of the most popular accounts when Threads launched are now completely dormant, despite having millions of followers.
Meta-AI could be similar. Strapped to the rocket of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram’s combined user base of 7.7 billion and pointed toward the moon, I expect a rocky debut and subsequent deorbit to ultimately fail. (Although it is not a failure as a function).
Threads’ surge in users could potentially be related to its “ground floor entry” to the popular social media platform. It’s also possible that Threads will slowly fade away and I’ll be left with egg on my face years from now when the meta AI revolutionizes The Zuck Kingdom.
However, what I do know is that tackling the incredible popularity and success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT is no mean feat, and it’s no mean feat to simply thrust a modern, large-scale language model in front of millions of people. That means it cannot be achieved. If you don’t believe me, ask Microsoft or Google.
