Meta plans to release standalone Meta AI app in effort to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., arrives for the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024. Meta AI will soon become one of the social media company's standalone apps, joining Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, CNBC has learned. The company intends to debut a Meta AI standalone app during the second quarter, according to people familiar with the matter. It marks a major step in Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plans to make his company the leader in artificial intelligence by the end of the year, ahead of competitors like OpenAI and Alphabet , said the people, who asked not to be named because the project is confidential. The Meta AI chatbot launched in Sep. 2023, with the company pitching it as a generative AI-powered digital assistant that can provide responses and create images based on user prompts within its existing apps. The company brought Meta AI to the forefront of its apps in April, when it replaced the search feature for Facebook, Instagram, ... Read full article.