At Metaverse Event, Meta’s Zuckerberg Unveils Work to Improve How Humans Chat to AI

Small toy figures are seen in front of displayed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta in this illustration taken, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
Small toy figures are seen in front of displayed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta in this illustration taken, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
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At Metaverse Event, Meta’s Zuckerberg Unveils Work to Improve How Humans Chat to AI

Small toy figures are seen in front of displayed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta in this illustration taken, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
Small toy figures are seen in front of displayed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta in this illustration taken, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)

Facebook-owner Meta is working on AI research to allow people to have more natural conversations with voice assistants, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday, a step towards how people will communicate with AI in the metaverse.

The company's Project CAIRaoke is "a fully end-to-end neural model for building on-device assistants," said Zuckerberg, speaking at Meta's live-streamed artificial intelligence event.

Zuckerberg is betting that the metaverse, a futuristic idea of virtual environments where users can work, socialize and play, will be the successor to the mobile internet.

The social media company, which recently lost a third of its market value after a dismal earnings report, has invested heavily in its new focus on building the metaverse and changed its name to reflect this ambition. This month Meta reported a 2021 net loss of $10.2 billion from its Reality Labs, the company's augmented and virtual reality business.

Meta also recently announced its research team has built a new artificial intelligence supercomputer that it thinks will be the fastest in the world when completed in mid-2022.



Microsoft Launches Copilot Chat for Businesses to Boost AI Adoption

FILE PHOTO: A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo
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Microsoft Launches Copilot Chat for Businesses to Boost AI Adoption

FILE PHOTO: A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

Microsoft on Wednesday rolled out a chat service allowing businesses to use on-demand AI agents for routine tasks, betting on the pay-as-you-go model to drive up the adoption of the technology.

The free service, Copilot Chat, which uses OpenAI's GPT-4, lets users create AI agents using natural languages such as English and Mandarin for tasks such as market research, writing strategy documents and preparing for meetings, Reuters reported.

However, features including summarizing and transcribing Teams calls and creating PowerPoint slides require a $30 monthly Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription.

Microsoft, like other big technology companies, is under pressure to show returns on its hefty investments in AI, as the software giant is set to spend about $80 billion during its current fiscal year on data centers and AI infrastructure.

After a Gartner report last year raised doubts about Copilot's adoption, Microsoft has been pushing its uptake.

In November, Microsoft began allowing customers to create autonomous agents requiring minimal human intervention, a strategy which some analysts say could offer tech companies a simpler path to monetization.