Earlier this year, Meta unveiled a collection of AI characters, featuring personalities like Paris Hilton, MrBeast, Kendall Jenner, Tom Brady, Charli D’Amelio, Snoop Dog, and more. These characters were designed for users to engage in conversations across Meta’s platforms. Today, the company has announced the full deployment of its 28 AI characters in the U.S., available for chatting on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. Meta also revealed plans to enhance these AI characters by introducing “long-term memory” in select ones, allowing them to learn and remember past conversations, contributing to a more authentic interaction. This not only creates a lifelike experience but also enables Meta to retain user data between sessions, aiding in the continuous improvement of its AI products over time.
The long-term memory feature will be active in characters such as Billie (based on Kendell Jenner), Carter (a dating coach), Scarlett (a “hype woman bestie”), Zach (based on MrBeast), Victor (based on Dwyane Wade), Sally (based on Sam Kerr), and Leo (a career coach). Meta emphasizes that users engaging with these characters will be able to resume their conversations seamlessly. The company aims to foster deeper connections and extended conversational capabilities with these AI characters. Users can choose to clear their chat history with the AIs at any time, and Meta commits to handling chat data in accordance with its Generative AI Privacy guidelines.
Beyond long-term memory, more characters will now integrate Bing Search functionality. Initially introduced for sports-related AIs Bru (based on Tom Brady) and Perry (based on Chris Paul), this feature will extend to characters like Luiz (based on Izzy Adesanya), Coco (based on Charlie D’Amelio), Lorena (based on Padma Lakshmi), Tamika (based on Naomi Osaka), Izzy (an aspiring singer-songwriter), and Jade (a “hip-hop obsessive”).
To engage with these AIs on Meta’s platforms, users can initiate a new message in the app and then select “Create an AI chat” on Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. This move positions Meta in competition with other AI character apps, such as Character AI, founded by Google AI researchers, which has gained traction in the U.S. and recently secured $150 million in Series A funding, valuing the company at $1 billion, as it competes with platforms like ChatGPT.
