Meta, the owner of Facebook, is developing a range of artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbots with distinct personalities, including the persona of Abraham Lincoln, the Financial Times has reported.
The tech giant is considering the launch of the Lincoln chatbot and a surfer chatbot that offers travel recommendations as soon as September, the newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed person familiar with the plans.
Like rivals such as Apple and Microsoft, Meta is focusing aggressively on AI.
The social media giant last month made waves across the sector when it announced it would give away the code behind its AI large language model Llama 2 for free, with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg arguing that “open source” AI is safer and more secure.
Meta’s reported plans come as the California-based social media company is struggling to retain users of Threads, its new Twitter-like platform, which has lost more than half of its users after record signups following its launch last month.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meta reported a healthy rise in advertising revenue last week after a difficult year that has seen the company let go of more than 21,000 employees.
A number of tech companies have launched chatbots with personalities, including the Andreessen Horowitz-backed start-up Character.AI, whose language models mimic figures such as Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and Nintendo character Mario.
