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Meta to launch AI chatbots with personalities to retain users: Report

As the Big Tech giant Meta focuses on retaining its users it plans to launch a number of AI-powered chatbots with different personalities and functions.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, plans to release artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots with human-like personalities as it focuses on user retention efforts, according to a report from the Financial Times. 

On Aug. 1 the FT reported that people close to the matter said prototypes of the chatbots have been underway with the final products being able to hold discussions with users at a human level.

The range of chatbots will be able to display different personalities and are expected to be released as early as next month, according to the report.

Sources close to the matter say that Meta staffers have dubbed the chatbots as “personas” and that these bots take the form of different characters. Another person with knowledge of the plans said the company has already explored one bot that speaks like the former United States president Abraham Lincoln and another for travel advice that speaks like a surfer.

According to the sources from the FT, the purpose of the chatbots will be both to offer recommendations and new search functionality, along with being a “fun product for people to play with.”

Cointelegraph has contacted Meta for further comment on the matter and has received no response at the time of writing. 

Related: Meta and Microsoft launch open-source AI model Llama 2

The FT source said that the company may automate checks on the chatbots’ outputs to ensure accuracy and avoid rule-breaking speech. 

This development comes as Meta has allocated major efforts toward user retention. During its 2023 second-quarter earnings call on July 26, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke about the company’s latest product and Twitter rival, Threads.

He said that he is “seeing more people coming back daily than I’d expected.” It was in this call Zuckerberg said Meta was primarily focused on Threads user retention. The earnings call also revealed another $3.7 billion invested into metaverse development.

The introduction of accessible chatbots also means an opportunity to collect large amounts of user data. OpenAI, the maker of the viral AI chatbot ChatGPT, has been hit with a class-action lawsuit over alleged data theft via its own bots. 

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Meta and Microsoft launch open-source AI model Llama 2

Llama 2 is trained on 40% more public data and can process twice as much context than Llama 1, according to Meta.

Big Tech firms Meta and Microsoft have teamed up to launch Llama 2, an open-source large language model from Meta that will feature on Microsoft’s Windows and cloud computing platform Azure.

The pair announced the collaboration on July 18 saying Llama 2 was made free for research and commercial use while also being optimized to run on Windows.

The announcement confirmed rumors from last week that said Llama 2 would be built for businesses and researchers to create applications on Meta’s AI tech stack.

Meta claimed Llama 2 was trained on 40% more publicly available online data sources and can process twice as much context compared to Llama 1.

The firm said Llama 2 outperforms many competitor open-source LLMs when it comes to coding, proficiency, reasoning and performance on knowledge tests. However, Meta conceded it isn’t quite as efficient compared to its closed-source competitors such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, according to one of its research papers

In a July 18 Instagram post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Llama 2 “gives researchers and businesses access to build with our next generation large language model as the foundation of their work.”

Mark Zuckerberg with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Source: Instagram

Meta said it was “blown away” by the demand for Llama 1 following the release of its limited version in February, which received over 100,000 requests for access. The model was soon leaked online by a user of the imageboard website 4chan.

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Llama 1's figures, however, were far off from ChatGPT’s, which saw an estimated 100 million or more users sign up to use the model in the first three months, according to a February Reuters report.

With the partnership, Microsoft now backs two big players in the AI space, having invested a cumulative $13 million in OpenAI over the course of 2023, according to a January report by Fortune.

Meta’s decision to open source Llama was criticized by two United States senators in June, who claim that the “seemingly minimal” protections in the first version of Llama potentially opened the doors for malicious users to engage in “criminal tasks.”

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Meta’s Twitter rival Threads to launch July 6, but will the crypto community budge?

Meta's microblogging platform is set for launch, with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey pointing out the apps centralization and data harvesting.

Meta is planning to launch its new Twitter rival, Threads, on July 6, only days after Twitter’s “rate limit” debacle which has temporarily capped how many posts users can read per day.

The platform, which is heavily tied to the photo and video-sharing social network Instagram, is expected to be released on Thursday according to a Meta-launched countdown site. Threads has also appeared for pre-order on Apple’s App Store bearing an expected date of July 6.

Screenshot of Threads’ listing on the App Store. Source: Apple

Despite an arguably well-timed launch, the app appears to have seen limited fanfare, at least from Twitter’s avid crypto community.

Concerns have been raised around data mining and privacy issues and a lack of confidence the standalone app would even survive.

Crypto Twitter influencer Tiffany Fong, who has 66,600 followers on the platform, told Cointelegraph she hadn’t even heard of Threads until now, stating "I have no clue what the Meta alternative is.” Fong has an active Instagram account with 10,400 followers.

Meanwhile, an ongoing Twitter poll from crypto influencer Kyle Chassé, a self-proclaimed “Bitcoin and crypto OG” has seen over 87% of the 125 respondents signal support for “Team Twitter” over “Team Meta.”

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey highlighted the Threads app privacy policy which indicated that Threads developer, Instagram Inc, would have access to a wide array of user data including financial info and identifiers.

However, Twitter has almost exactly the same permissions as Threads and collects similar data, according to researchers who responded to Dorsey's post.

Others have raised concerns over the possible longevity of the app given Meta’s previous standalone app launches have either been shut down or had the features rolled into its other products.

“What Meta doesn't want you to remember is that they already shut down Threads back in Dec 2021 after shutting down another standalone app called Direct," said Nick St. Pierre, a Twitter user that posts about artificial intelligence developments.

“They have a history of releasing standalone apps for attention, shutting them down, then rolling the features into [Instagram].”

Related: Twitter suspends memecoin-linked AI bot after Elon Musk’s ‘scam crypto’ claim

Meta’s expected Threads launch would come just days after Twitter’s rate limit debacle, which has imposed a temporary restriction on the number of posts that a user can view in a day.

Instead of users having to rebuild a following from scratch, Threads will port Instagram users’ followers and following lists.

According to reports earlier this year, a company spokesperson said that the stand-alone Threads app will support ActivityPub, the decentralized social networking protocol powering Twitter rival Mastodon.

Meanwhile, decentralized Twitter rival Mastodon has seen a recent surge in activity with an increase in active users since Twitter imposed its read restrictions.

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New Web3 ID app lets users find each other based on proven interests

Quivr allows users to connect multiple apps, including Spotify, Steam and Instagram, to generate behavior-based badges proving their interests.

A Web3 app launched on June 27 lets users prove their social credibility using blockchain technology, according to an announcement from the app’s development team. Called “Quivr,” it lets users connect apps they regularly use, such as Spotify, Steam, Apple Music and others. Based on their behavior in these apps, Quivr generates blockchain badges that prove their interests or membership within communities, which can then be used as a way of identifying users who have common interests.

Quivr has launched on the Apple App Store, with an Android and web version scheduled to be released in about two weeks, developers told Cointelegraph. Over 10,000 users created accounts during the app’s beta period.

Quivr app badges. Source: Quivr

According to the announcement, Quivr has formed an initial set of partnerships with celebrities and organizations to help build communities through the app, including Ross Butler, Jack Dylan Grazer, Ohio State, Arizona State, Kansas State and Fenix Games.

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Quivr co-founder and CEO Ray Lee stated that the current version of Quivr can connect to 11 different apps: Spotify, LinkedIn, Steam, Twitter, Apple Music, Apple Health, Instagram, TikTok, Audius and Canvas.

The users’ behavior on these apps determines the badges they are able to acquire, allowing them to prove their credentials through their actions. For example, if a user listens to jazz music on Spotify, the person may receive a “jazz fan” badge, or if the user plays fighting games on Steam, the individual may receive a “fighting gamer” badge.

If users want to record a credential that can’t be proven through one of these apps, they can instead upload a video or image and have it reviewed by community validators as an alternative form of proof.

Users can browse each others’ profiles and send private messages to each other using Quivr, allowing them to find and chat with others who have proven to share their interests. In the current version, only private messages are available. But the team is experimenting with ideas of creating “community and subgroups around conversations” like a “validated Discord” in the future, Lee stated.

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Quivr runs on the Polygon network. However, it does not require users to download a separate wallet or copy down and store seed words. Instead, it uses Magic SDK for logins, a type of new wallet tech that does not require seed words.

Web3 app developers continue to compete for a slice of the lucrative social media and influencer market. Polkadot-based chat app Subsocial implemented Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility on June 8, and Polygon-based Lens network created a new “layer 3” scaling solution for faster posts on April 26.

Although none of these apps have yet to challenge the Facebooks and Twitters of the world, some Web3 experts believe that social apps will be the killer use case that brings blockchain tech to the masses.

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EU watchdog targets crypto ads on Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, Twitter

The largest European consumer rights group alleges crypto marketers on popular social networks use misleading promotion, exposing consumers to serious harm.

On June 8, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) — an umbrella group for 46 independent consumer organizations from 32 countries — published a report titled: “Hype or harm? The Great Social Media Crypto Con.“ In the 20-page document, the group states that consumers are not fully aware of the risks associated with crypto.

The report draws examples from Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok, calling them “key players” in crypto advertising. In the case of Facebook, it notes that crypto advertisements skirt rules, forbidding the promotion of non-licensed financial platforms. The announcement stated:

"TikTok, Instagram, Twitter & YouTube are responsible for allowing misleading advertisements of crypto to multiply through ads & influencers. This is an unfair commercial practice, exposing consumers to serious harm (loss of significant amounts of money)."

With Twitter, the report nods at Elon Musk’s move to instate Doge, a mascot for Dogecoin, despite the platforms’ own prohibition of any crypto ad. BEUC also mentions so-called “finfluencers” as “an important source of information” for a younger audience.

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Despite the single national regulators' efforts to combat misleading promotion, the problem still lacks a complex approach. According to the report, there is already a legal base to take EU-level measures — an Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD), and there is a body to lead the enforcement — an EU Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC Network):

“The problem continues to be addressed at national level mainly while it would require a common approach by the CPC Network acting collectively on the basis of the UCPD and targeting the platforms used for the promotion of crypto assets and related services.”

The report calls for the CPC-Network to request that social media platforms implement stricter conditions in their advertising policies, include in their Terms of Use a prohibition for influencers to promote crypto products and submit reports to the European Commission about the effectiveness of the measures put in place. 

Meanwhile, in France, the Senate approved an amendment allowing registered crypto companies to hire social media influencers for advertising and promotional purposes.

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Instagram to reportedly launch text-based app to rival Twitter

The upcoming app will maintain a Twitter-like centralized feed, allowing users to view content such as text, images and videos shared by followers and recommended accounts.

In a secret meeting with select creators, Instagram’s parent company, Meta, reportedly revealed its plan to launch a text-based conversation app. The leaked screenshots of the alleged upcoming app show a user interface similar to Twitter.

Instagram’s plan to rival Twitter was uncovered by Lia Haberman, an influencer marketing and social media marketing teacher at the University of California, Los Angeles Extension. According to Haberman, although the text-based app is built on top of Instagram, it is decentralized and will function as a separate app. The app will also be compatible with other decentralized social media apps like Mastodon, allowing users to reach more audiences.

The upcoming app will maintain a Twitter-like centralized feed, allowing users to view content such as text, images and videos shared by followers and recommended accounts. Each text-based post will be limited to a word count of 500 characters.

Screenshots of Instagram’s new text-based app. Source: Twitter

While the app rivaling Twitter will function independently of Instagram, creator controls and account safety features, such as blocked accounts and keywords, will carry over to the new app.

Bloomberg reporter Sarah Frier reportedly confirmed the development of Instagram’s Twitter-like app from insiders. Meta first confirmed plans to develop a standalone decentralized social network in March when it said, “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.”

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With a vision to impart further decentralization in the internet, TBD — a division of Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Block — announced a Web5 decentralized web platform that aims to introduce “decentralized identity and data storage” to applications.

To facilitate this decentralized web experience, TBD’s web5 platform will introduce several key components and employ the use of decentralized identifiers.

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Elon Musk threatens Microsoft with suit, claims AI trained on Twitter data

The Twitter chief alleged Microsoft scraped information from the platform to train its AI and sell the data to others.

Microsoft has been threatened with a suit from Tesla and Twitter chief Elon Musk who claimed the Big Tech firm “illegally” trained its artificial intelligence (AI) on Twitter data.

On April 19, Musk tweeted that it was “lawsuit time” in response to a post reporting that Microsoft would cease supporting Twitter on April 25 across its online social advertising tools, Smart Campaigns and Multi-platform.

The Twitter boss alleged Microsoft “trained illegally using Twitter data” implying the firm mined user tweets to help train its AI-powered applications.

Microsoft didn’t explain why it was winding down Twitter support although Twitter’s API fees skyrocketed from $0 to $42,000 a month and in some cases are priced upwards of $200,000 per month according to a March report from Wired.

Musk made further allegations that Microsoft is “demonetizing” Twitter data by removing advertisements and “then selling our data to others.”

Microsoft’s decision to ditch Twitter means its customers will lose access to their Twitter accounts through its tools in addition to being able to create, manage, view and schedule Tweets.

Microsoft has scrapped Twitter advertisements from its Multi-platform. Source: Microsoft

Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn remain available to Microsoft customers, its website states.

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Microsoft’s decision comes a few months after Twitter stopped providing free access to the Twitter API for versions 1.1 and 2.

Academics have been hit hard by the huge price swing. Over 17,500 academic papers have been based on Twitter data since 2020. Now they’ve been largely priced out.

Cointelegraph contacted Microsoft, who declined to comment on Musk’s claims and its decision to scrap Twitter ads support.

The software company is now reportedly developing its own AI chips to power ChatGPT to deal with the rising development costs for in-house and OpenAI projects.

Microsoft is the second largest company in the world by market cap behind Apple, with a $2.15 trillion valuation according to Google Finance.

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Meta pulling the plug on NFTs across Instagram and Facebook

The short-lived NFT features were first launched in May 2022, but Meta's financial technology lead said it's "winding down" the tools to focus elsewhere.

Big Tech firm Meta is scrapping its nonfungible token (NFT) feature across its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram just under a year after it launched.

Stephane Kasriel, Meta's head of commerce and financial technologies, tweeted the news on Mar. 13, saying Meta is "winding down" its NFT support as it wishes to "focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses."

Kasriel added the firm is still prioritizing ways for users to "connect with their fans and monetize" and will focus on such as building payment rails on its platform and through its messaging apps and monetizing Reels — the company's short form video tool.

The product was relatively short-lived as testing began in May 2022 with select United States-based creators on Instagram before it expanded to Facebook that June. It expanded again in July as Instagram made NFT tools available to over 100 countries.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

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