Meta would presumably work on its own AI search engine to be less dependent on Google and Microsoft.
Meta, the company behind Facebook, is working on an AI search engine. The tech giant wants to be less dependent on Google and Microsoft. The Verge was allowed to see a report from The Information, which states that that search engine would serve to give Meta AI users answers about current events. Meta AI is a built-in chatbot in Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Big plans for Meta AI
Europe does not have access to Meta’s AI systems for now due to disagreements with the European Commission over AI legislation. However, the chatbot is popular in the countries where it is available, counting nearly 500 million monthly active users in August, according to Mark Zuckerberg.
For now, the Meta AI bot still relies on Google and Microsoft Bing to answer questions about recent events. That could change soon, as Meta has been building an information database for eight months, and it struck a multi-year deal with news agency Reuters. This allows the bot to incorporate news events from Reuters into its answers.
In addition to Meta, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI are also betting on AI-based search experiences. Bing recently got AI-generated search results similar to Google’s. OpenAI launched its own search engine called SearchGPT, based on its powerful AI models.