aecifo

Meta seeks to become the next search engine that talks with you

Umito October 31, 2024

Meta’s AI-powered chatbot, Meta AI, could develop more search engine functions, CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted earlier this year. People are already using it to search “billions of queries” since the company introduced it in the first quarter of this year, he said in July.

Right now, people can ask Meta AI about anything from “sports analysis 101” to “secret vacation spots” in a search bar available at the top of apps owned by Meta such as Instagram and Facebook. The most engaged users are from India and the most engaged app is WhatsApp.

Recent media reports indicated that a dedicated team was working on the search engine feature so that the chatbot could rely less on Google and Microsoft’s Bing and generate real-time conversational responses about current events.

Analysts expect generative AI could shake up the competitive landscape in search, currently dominated by Google. OpenAI SearchGPT generates real-time conversational responses to people’s search queries, but it is only available to a small group of users.