Have you ever wished you could clone yourself and delegate the most repetitive tasks of your job to it? Starting this week, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp users in the United States can create “AI characters” that mimic their own personalities and interests. While Meta says anyone can create an AI character meant to make people laugh and generate memes, most of the characters’ appeal lies in their ability to interact with users’ fans on their behalf.
Users can find the new characteristic in AI Studio, a tool Meta introduced Monday specifically for its digital clones. AI Studio is also accessible through Instagram’s messaging feature, where users can tap the new “Create an AI Chat” option. From there, users have two character options: regular AI characters, which are designed primarily for fun, and “Creator AI,” which are meant to serve as extensions of business owners, content creators and celebrities.
At the end of the spectrum, users can generate what are essentially custom chatbots. Based on Meta's examples, these appear to be geared toward entertainment or education: a chef character helps users learn how to cook, while a football trivia character offers, well, football trivia. The characters appear to be able to generate images online, so if a user asks for a picture of a mid-century modern living room, Meta's open source code would be able to generate images online. Call 3.1 The model can prepare one on the spot.
Credit: Meta
On the other hand, Meta’s AI options for creators seem to be much more practical. Instead of ignoring the thousands of direct messages that arrive in their inboxes on a regular basis, businesses, influencers, and celebrities can create AI personas that match their own personalities, expertise, and linguistic style, and then use those personas to respond to followers on their behalf.
For businesses, this could mean answering customer questions or directing stressed-out customers to the right support; for internet personalities, using AI to respond to story replies or direct messages could offer a new way to engage with adoring fans. (Meta reveals when users are chatting with an AI character to avoid confusion.)
Meta is just one of the brands offering content creators an AI-powered way to expand their online presence. Captions, a generative AI platform for video, Announced A new tool called “AI Twin” launched Tuesday that lets users create their own photorealistic digital copies. Users can use text input to create videos using their personalized avatar — no real camera required. Unlike the avatars designed by Captions, these personalized avatars are accessible only to the user who created them, helping to allay concerns about AI-generated misinformation or targeted deepfakes.
Synthesisa synthetic media generation company, also offers an AI doppelganger product, while Dawn AI Allows users to create AI copies of themselves with artistic style.
