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Instagram AI Studio: Create Custom Chatbots With Your Personality
Meta’s new feature allows users to create custom chatbots with unique personalities that can interact with fans and help in role-play scenarios.
Meta has unveiled a new tool called AI Studio, enabling users to create virtual characters with personalized traits and interests, including versions of themselves that can interact with audiences through direct messages.
AI Studio is initially rolling out to Instagram Business account holders and will be available to all Meta users in the United States within the next few weeks. The platform will be accessible via ai.meta.com/ai-studio and the Instagram app, as well as through WhatsApp, Messenger, and browsers.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, envisions users creating custom AI chatbots for entertainment purposes or as personal support tools. For instance, chatbots could be used for role-play scenarios like negotiating a pay rise or resolving a conflict with a friend. These kinds of interactions provide a safe space for users to practice and receive feedback on various social situations.
To ensure responsible use, AI Studio includes features that allow users to restrict who can interact with their chatbots and control the topics they discuss. The platform’s usage policy also explicitly prohibits the creation of chatbots deemed hateful, explicit, or illegal.
In a blog post, Meta highlighted several chatbots developed by celebrities using AI Studio. For example, chef Marc Murphy created a chatbot named “Eat Like You Live There!” to offer dining recommendations, while photographer Angel Barclay designed “What Lens Bro,” a bot providing photography tips.
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Meta’s AI Studio handbook provides guidance on customizing chatbots, allowing users to input a detailed description, choose a name, and upload an image. They can also specify how bots should respond to particular prompts. The system, leveraging Meta’s powerful Llama model, improvises responses based on these instructions.
In addition to AI Studio, Meta also introduced another innovative tool, known as Segment Anything Model (SAM) 2. The technology can identify and track the contents of images and videos, which Zuckerberg demonstrated by showcasing its ability to monitor cattle on his vast ranch in Kauai. The Facebook founder also noted that SAM2 has broader applications, such as studying coral reefs, natural habitats, and landscape changes.
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Lebanon Ministers Meet Visa Over National Digital Payment Platform
Finance and technology ministers say a comparative study and roadmap will follow before any decision on adopting a model.
Lebanon’s finance and technology ministers met representatives from Visa last week to discuss a proposed unified national digital payment platform for government services, according to a readout from the Ministry of Finance.
The meeting brought together Finance Minister Yassin Jaber, Minister of State for Technology and Artificial Intelligence Kamal Shehadeh, a Visa delegation, and experts from both ministries. Discussion focused on whether Lebanon could establish a single platform through which citizens and institutions would pay taxes, fees, fines and other official transactions electronically, using mobile phones and other digital channels.
The Visa delegation presented examples from countries that have adopted unified government payment platforms, including the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Estonia and Jordan. According to the readout, the examples were presented as having increased collection rates and expanded financial inclusion.
Talks covered settlement mechanisms, direct transfer to the treasury account, financial reconciliation, risk management, cybersecurity, fees, and an operational model that would involve the private sector. The parties agreed to continue technical and institutional consultations, prepare a comparative study, and develop an implementation roadmap before any decision on adopting a model for Lebanon.
Jaber said the Ministry of Finance had already enabled citizens to pay using credit cards and e-wallets through transfer companies, but described the proposed platform as a further step. He framed the development of electronic payment and collection systems as a priority within the ministry’s modernization plan.
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Shehadeh outlined the citizen-facing concept as a single mobile application through which users could settle obligations to ministries, government institutions and other bodies.
“The idea, in short, is that any citizen downloads an application on their mobile phone, through which they can pay all service obligations for all ministries, government institutions, or those owned by the Lebanese state, and others as well, as the platform is not limited only to state institutions,” he said.
Shehadeh added that the platform would not displace banks and money transfer companies that currently provide collection services to the state, calling it complementary to their work.
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