The way some companies with big AI dreams are thinking, smartphone users want nothing more than to get advice from, be entertained by, and interact with virtual chatbots. Meta is betting so big on this concept that it just launched a major effort to let people design custom AI chatbots, tailored precisely to their preferences. But as firms like Meta try to zero-in on the kind of AI interactions that are most engaging, they’re also picking up a lot of lessons about what doesn’t work. And as Meta apparently learned the hard way, that includes chatbots based on celebrities.

Meta introduced its celeb chatbots last September with a total of 28 accounts, all featuring the likeness of a famous person and given specific personas. The whole thing was a bit weird, not even using actual celebrity names: you might interact with “Lorena” the travel expert, based on Padma Lakshmi, or chat with Charli D’Amelio’s “Coco” the dancer. At least those track tonally with the people they’re based on, but others felt like wild swings: Paris Hilton as “Amber” the detective “for solving whodunnits,” or Snoop Dogg not as the resident cannabis sommelier but “Dungeon Master,” ready to help plan your next tabletop adventure.

Fast-forward ten months, and Meta is taking these chatbots back behind the shed for some Old Yeller action. The Information reports that the Facebook and Instagram pages for all these bots went offline earlier this week. The company confirmed to the site it had discontinued the feature, highlighting what it picked up from the experience, explaining, “We took a lot of learnings from building them and Meta AI to understand how people can use AIs to connect and create in unique ways.”

Based on the timing, we’d certainly hope that many of those lessons became the foundation for Meta’s new AI Studio offering, where rather than choosing from all these pre-packaged disparate personas, users can take the time to craft a custom experience. Maybe that one won’t last, either, but sometimes you have to learn what doesn’t work before you can figure out what does.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s Ben Whitelaw.

Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice — or go straight to the RSS feed.

In this week’s round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Commission opens formal proceedings against Meta under the Digital Services Act related to the protection of minors on Facebook and Instagram (European Commission)
• Meta, TikTok, other platforms told to expect EU guidelines soon on child protection, age verification (MLex)
• Got a text that you think is a scam? S’pore’s new centre to fight online harms can help verify it (Straits Times)
• Bipartisan Bill To Repeal Section 230 Defended In Facts-Optional Op-Ed (Techdirt)
• Indian journalists turned to YouTube to dodge Modi’s censorship. Some of their channels are now being blocked (Reuters Institute for Journalism)
• She was accused of faking an incriminating video of teenage cheerleaders. She was arrested, outcast and condemned. The problem? Nothing was fake after all (The Guardian)
• Commission services sign administrative arrangement with Ofcom to support the enforcement of social media regulations (Pub Affairs Bruxelles)
• Singapore’s proposed online safety laws look like more censorship in disguise (Rest of World)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund.

Earlier this week, tech writer and Google Ventures general partner M.G. Siegler received a late-night notification from Meta informing him that his accounts on Instagram, Threads, and Facebook had been suspended for a horrifying alleged violation that he refuses to even name. — Read the rest

The post Instagram's terrifying false positive nearly ruined a tech writer's life appeared first on Boing Boing.

Earlier this week, tech writer and Google Ventures general partner M.G. Siegler received a late-night notification from Meta informing him that his accounts on Instagram, Threads, and Facebook had been suspended for a horrifying alleged violation that he refuses to even name. — Read the rest

The post Instagram's terrifying false positive nearly ruined a tech writer's life appeared first on Boing Boing.

If you’ve recently found yourself staring at unfamiliar buttons and prompts on your favorite Meta apps, you’re not alone. The recent rollout marks the debut of Meta AI’s latest large language model, Llama 3, promising more personalized interactions but also potentially more intrusive AI suggestions. Still, this is the closest it has ever been to ChatGPT.

But what if you’re not ready to embrace the AI revolution? What if you find the integration more cumbersome than helpful? Maybe you hate that the answers are not completely reliable. But is there any way to turn off the new Meta AI integration and regain some semblance of your pre-AI browsing experience?

Since Instagram is all about visuals, the plain background of your DMs might seem bland. The social media app lets you change the theme to spice things up. You can choose from various patterns and colors that match your aesthetic and customize the appearance of your messages based on who youre chatting with. This guide shows you how to change your Instagram theme on a budget Android phone, a flagship device, or an iPhone.

The battle for AI supremacy between ChatGPT and Gemini just turned into a three-way race as Meta has unveiled a significantly upgraded version of its AI assistant. The new-and-improved Meta AI, powered by the cutting-edge Llama 3 language model, is boldly proclaimed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to be “now the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use.”

Meta first introduced Meta AI last year, but it was limited to the US, and its capabilities were not on par with those of competitors like ChatGPT and Gemini. However, the integration of the Llama 3 model, also announced today, represents a seemingly quantum leap for Meta’s AI. Benchmark tests conducted by the company indicate that, with Llama 3 at its core, Meta AI has the potential to outperform other top-tier AI models, particularly in areas like translation, dialogue generation, and complex reasoning.

What can the new Meta AI do?

The overhauled Meta AI is now directly accessible through the search bars within Facebook, Instagram (DMs page), WhatsApp, and Messenger. Plus, you can access it at a new standalone website, meta.ai. It can search the web for you, provide recommendations for restaurants, flights, and more, or clarify complex concepts. On Facebook, Meta AI can also interact with your feed, allowing you to ask questions about content you see, like the best time to catch the Northern Lights after viewing a stunning photo of them.

I could even ask it for tailored content like fitness reels or comedy videos, with Meta AI curating a 5-video feed for me in those cases. Meta has included many prompts under the search bar on Facebook and Instagram to help us get the most out of Meta AI’s abilities. Thankfully, we can still use the search bars for regular searches for accounts and hashtags.

From what I could see so far, Meta AI’s answers are not as nuanced and detailed as what Gemini would give me for similar questions, but it could benefit from two key strengths. First, it’s seamlessly embedded within Meta’s popular apps — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger — giving their billions of users convenient access to the AI assistant. Secondly, Meta AI isn’t tied to one search engine; it openly uses both Google and Bing to process queries, removing potential bias toward either company’s algorithms.

One of the most intriguing parts of Meta AI is its Imagine image generator. This feature first appeared within WhatsApp a few months ago and allowed users to create AI-generated images based on text descriptions. Since then, it has expanded to Instagram and Facebook.

Starting today, WhatsApp beta users and those using Meta AI’s desktop website in the US can try out an even more advanced version of Imagine. This version generates images in real-time while you type, with the image updating as you add more details, really demonstrating how far generative AI has come.

Currently, Meta AI works in English and is rolling out to many countries outside the US, including Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, with more on the way.

The battle for AI supremacy between ChatGPT and Gemini just turned into a three-way race as Meta has unveiled a significantly upgraded version of its AI assistant. The new-and-improved Meta AI, powered by the cutting-edge Llama 3 language model, is boldly proclaimed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to be “now the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use.”

Meta first introduced Meta AI last year, but it was limited to the US, and its capabilities were not on par with those of competitors like ChatGPT and Gemini. However, the integration of the Llama 3 model, also announced today, represents a seemingly quantum leap for Meta’s AI. Benchmark tests conducted by the company indicate that, with Llama 3 at its core, Meta AI has the potential to outperform other top-tier AI models, particularly in areas like translation, dialogue generation, and complex reasoning.

What can the new Meta AI do?

The overhauled Meta AI is now directly accessible through the search bars within Facebook, Instagram (DMs page), WhatsApp, and Messenger. Plus, you can access it at a new standalone website, meta.ai. It can search the web for you, provide recommendations for restaurants, flights, and more, or clarify complex concepts. On Facebook, Meta AI can also interact with your feed, allowing you to ask questions about content you see, like the best time to catch the Northern Lights after viewing a stunning photo of them.

I could even ask it for tailored content like fitness reels or comedy videos, with Meta AI curating a 5-video feed for me in those cases. Meta has included many prompts under the search bar on Facebook and Instagram to help us get the most out of Meta AI’s abilities. Thankfully, we can still use the search bars for regular searches for accounts and hashtags.

From what I could see so far, Meta AI’s answers are not as nuanced and detailed as what Gemini would give me for similar questions, but it could benefit from two key strengths. First, it’s seamlessly embedded within Meta’s popular apps — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger — giving their billions of users convenient access to the AI assistant. Secondly, Meta AI isn’t tied to one search engine; it openly uses both Google and Bing to process queries, removing potential bias toward either company’s algorithms.

One of the most intriguing parts of Meta AI is its Imagine image generator. This feature first appeared within WhatsApp a few months ago and allowed users to create AI-generated images based on text descriptions. Since then, it has expanded to Instagram and Facebook.

Starting today, WhatsApp beta users and those using Meta AI’s desktop website in the US can try out an even more advanced version of Imagine. This version generates images in real-time while you type, with the image updating as you add more details, really demonstrating how far generative AI has come.

Currently, Meta AI works in English and is rolling out to many countries outside the US, including Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, with more on the way.

Like many other popular apps, Instagram includes a dark mode you can enable to make the majority of its interface black. You might want to turn on the option for a couple of reasons. One of the more practical ones is that using dark mode across your apps can help your device save on battery life. It also happens to look very cool! Regardless, we’re here to show you how to turn on Instagram dark mode.

Related: How to turn on dark mode in Google apps