Facebook owner Meta is planning to introduce chatbots with distinct personalities to its social media app. The launch could come as soon as this September and would be a challenge to rivals like ChatGPT, but there are concerns that there could be serious implications for users’ privacy.
The idea comes from the Financial Times, which reports that the move is an attempt to boost engagement with Facebook users. The new tool could do this by providing fresh search capabilities or recommending content, all through humanlike discussions.
According to sources cited by the Financial Times, the chatbots will take on different personas, including “one that emulates Abraham Lincoln and another that advises on travel options in the style of a surfer.”
This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen chatbots take on their own personalities or converse in the style of famous people. The Character.ai chatbot, for example, can adopt dozens of different personalities, including those of celebrities and historical figures.
Despite the promise Meta’s chatbots could show, fears have also been raised over the amount of data they will likely collect — especially considering Facebook has an abysmal record at protecting user privacy.
Ravit Dotan, an AI ethics adviser and researcher, was quoted by the Financial Times as saying “Once users interact with a chatbot, it really exposes much more of their data to the company, so that the company can do anything they want with that data.”
This not only raises the prospect of far-reaching privacy breaches but allows for the possibility of “manipulation and nudging” of users, Dotan added.
Other chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat have had a history of “hallucinations,” or moments where they share incorrect information — or even misinformation. The potential damage caused by misinformation and bias could be much higher on Facebook, which has nearly four billion users, compared to rival chatbots.
Meta’s past attempts at chatbots have fared poorly, with the company’s BlenderBot 2 and BlenderBot 3 both quickly devolving into misleading content and inflammatory hate speech. That might not give users much hope for Meta’s latest effort.
With September fast approaching, we might not have long to see whether Facebook is able to surmount these hurdles, or if we will have another hallucination-riddled launch akin to those suffered elsewhere in the industry. Whatever happens, it’ll be interesting to watch.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Google DeepMind's AI world model Genie 4 can now build interactive worlds that you can explore and reshape as they run. It also generates ambient sounds, music, and dialogue that respond to your actions.
The new world model builds on Genie 3 with improved realism, more natural human movement, and better simulations of real-world physics. It could eventually help with everything from game development to training robots.
Apple has an incredible talent for making me admire its products while simultaneously questioning what on earth it's thinking with the pricing. This isn't even something as bizarre as a monitor stand, but the audacity for starting a new laptop lineup from $2,000 doesn't surprise me.
The newly announced 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 is just the latest to showcase this. The funny thing is, I already know that it's going to be a reliable workstation. You get a powerful new 2nm M6 processor, a gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR display, and up to 24 hours of battery life. We were impressed by the M5 MacBook Air, so the high-end M6 powered MacBook Pro definitely won't let us down.