Meta AI, a ChatGPT competitor developed by the Facebook and Instagram parent company, has today launched in the UK. 

The product provides similar services to the likes of Gemini and ChatGPT, allowing users to ask questions and generate various forms of written and visual communication instantly. 

However, keen to fly the flag of open AI (not to be confused with ChatGPT developer OpenAI, which is comparatively closed), Meta’s open-source AI product is completely free, as opposed to offering a stripped-down free version and an advanced premium tier. 

Meta AI has been implemented in the parent company’s existing platforms and is accessible from Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. 

Meta AI has also launched in the UK via the company’s Ray-Ban smart glasses 

Originally launched in 2023, Meta has been slowly rolling out its automated assistant. As of Wednesday, it is available in 43 countries and a dozen languages.  

Alongside the UK, Meta AI on Wednesday launched in a handful of South American countries, including Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala and Paraguay, as well as the Philippines. 

Meta said it will launch its AI products in 15 further countries “soon”, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. 

The company is also adding support for new languages such as Tagalog, Thai, Arabic, Vietnamese and Indonesian. 

The Big Tech firm is keen on casting as wide a net as possible for its assistant in the hopes of quickly establishing market dominance. The group claimed its chatbot is on track to become the world’s most popular by the end of 2024 with almost 500 million monthly active users. 

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