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During a Meta earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that AI is a “key theme” for the company and will “impact every single one of our apps and services.”
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Zuckerberg mentioned AI no less than 22 times during his roughly 11-minute opening presentation and used the word “AI” 57 times during the call.
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Meta’s AI work has already begun to boost its family of apps, including Instagram, which saw a 24% boost in the amount of time people spent on it after the company launched AI-powered Reels.
Zuckerberg’s Plans for AI and the Metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg’s commitment to AI is not new. He has been discussing the potential of AI for years, and in 2018 he launched the Facebook AI Research (FAIR) group. During the recent earnings call, Zuckerberg hinted that Meta’s large language model, LLaMA, could eventually be available to more users. The company opened up access to some researchers in February. Zuckerberg stated that Meta is focused on both AI and the metaverse and will continue to focus on both. During the call, Zuckerberg spent about six minutes discussing his plans for AI and less than 90 seconds on the metaverse.
Meta’s CFO, Susan Li, stated during the call that the company expects to spend about $30 billion to $33 billion in 2023 to support its “ongoing build-out of AI capacity to support ads, Feed and Reels, along with an increased investment in capacity for our Generative AI initiatives.”
Meta’s Emphasis on AI: What It Means for the Company and the Industry
Meta’s emphasis on AI reflects a broader trend in the tech industry, where companies are increasingly investing in artificial intelligence to enhance their products and services. The company’s commitment to AI could help it gain an edge in the social media market by improving its user experience and introducing new features. The success of Instagram’s AI-powered Reels shows that Meta’s investment in AI is paying off.
Meta’s efforts in AI could also help address some of the challenges faced by the industry, such as content moderation. With the proliferation of harmful content on social media platforms, companies are under pressure to improve their moderation capabilities. AI could be a key tool in identifying and removing harmful content at scale.
Mark Zuckerberg’s emphasis on AI during the recent Meta earnings call underscores the company’s commitment to this technology. Meta’s investment in AI could have a significant impact on the social media industry, enhancing user experience and helping to address challenges like content moderation. While the company is not abandoning its plans for the metaverse, its focus on AI could give it a competitive edge in the market.
The tech industry has been consumed by talk of artificial intelligence over the past week, with generative AI and its numerous potential applications being discussed extensively. However, during Meta’s earnings call on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg spent a significant amount of time discussing his long-standing interest in the metaverse, a concept that he believes is closely connected to AI.
Zuckerberg emphasized that the metaverse will play a crucial role in bringing AI to consumers through “AI agents,” a term he used multiple times during the call. While it’s still unclear what exactly an AI agent is, Zuckerberg believes that there’s a significant opportunity to introduce them to billions of people in useful and meaningful ways.
The metaverse, according to Zuckerberg, will allow for the procedural generation of worlds, making it possible to deliver compelling experiences at scale. Mixed reality, he added, is built on a stack of AI technologies that blend the physical and digital worlds.
Zuckerberg’s interest in the metaverse is nothing new; he’s been dreaming of it for years. In support of this goal, Meta has already created over a billion avatars, and half of the people who use its Quest VR headset daily spend more than an hour on the device. Moreover, the company is preparing to launch its next-generation virtual and mixed-reality device later this year.
However, despite Zuckerberg’s commitment to the long-term project of building the metaverse, Reality Labs, Meta’s division dedicated to the concept, is currently $3.99 billion in the red for Q1, having generated only $399 million in revenue during that time. Nonetheless, Zuckerberg remains undeterred, stating that the rationale for building the metaverse remains the same, and the company is fully committed to it.
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