Meta developing ChatGPT-like AI to help advertisers create ads

Meta is reportedly planning to develop new artificial intelligence tools similar to ChatGPT to create ads that have better reach among audiences.

Meta chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth told Nikkei Asia that Facebook’s parent company is planning to commercialise the use of generative AI technology to improve its ad creation business in its apps.

“We expect we’ll start seeing some of them this year. We just created a new team, the generative AI team. They are very busy. It’s probably the area that I’m spending the most time, as well as Mark Zuckerberg and Chris Cox [chief product officer],” Mr Bosworth said.

Meta chief Mr Zuckerberg posted on Facebook in February that the company is creating a “top-level product group” focused on generative AI “to turbocharge our work in this area”.

He noted that the company is putting together a single group made up of staff from other teams who are working on generative AI across the company.

The group, Mr Zuckerberg said, would be focused on building creative and expressive tools and later on developing AI personas to help people “in a variety of ways”.

“We’re exploring experiences with text (like chat in WhatsApp and Messenger), with images (like creative Instagram filters and ad formats), and with video and multi-modal experiences,” the Meta chief said in February.

Mr Bosworth said Meta’s AI can boost the effectiveness of ads by offering tools to customise them for different audiences.

Citing an example, he said advertisers could potentially use the AI tools to make ad images “that work for different audiences. And it can save a lot of time and money”.

TechCrunch reported that Meta also has plans to “create virtual worlds” using generative AI.

“So previously, if I wanted to create a 3D world, I needed to learn a lot of computer graphics and programming. In the future, you might be able to just describe the world you want to create and have the large language model generate that world for you,” Mr Bosworth said.

Mr Zuckerberg has acknowledged 2023 as a “Year Of Efficiency” aiming to slash costs and restructure the tech giant.

With advertising being the main revenue source for Meta, generative AI tools like ChatGPT can help its clients create ads and generate more opportunities for the company to make money.

Concerns over generative AI have emerged ever since the technology gained popularity.

ChatGPT recently falsely accused an American law professor by including him in a generated list of legal scholars who had sexually harassed someone and cited a non-existent The Washington Post report to support its claims.

In yet another instance, a mayor in Australia said he was mulling legal action against OpenAI because ChatGPT falsely claimed he was guilty in a foreign bribery scandal involving a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia in the early 2000s.