Meta plans to add an artificial intelligence app to its stable of stand-alone offerings including Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, according to a report Thursday by CNBC.
Meta is battling rivals including Amazon, OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft when it comes to models for powering AI, and has been incrementally weaving the technology into its platforms since launching its own AI chatbot in 2023.
An independent app devoted to AI would fit into Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg’s stated vision of having the most used AI assistant in the world.
CNBC cited people familiar with the matter as saying Meta plans to debut a standalone AI app by the middle of this year.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman fired off a post on X, formerly Twitter, with a link to the CNBC story, writing: “OK, fine maybe we’ll do a social app.”
Meta is also planning to test a paid subscription tier for its AI platform, in a revenue generating tactic used by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, according to the report.
Meta declined to comment for this story.
The tech giant recently reported surging profits and revenue for 2024, announcing ambitious plans to expand its artificial intelligence infrastructure in the year ahead.
“I expect this is going to be the year when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than 1 billion people, and I expect Meta AI to be that leading Assistant,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the earnings call.
The rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s more economical AI model has reportedly prompted Meta to establish war rooms to study and potentially adapt the innovations for its own Llama AI models.
Meta fires employees for leaks
Meta on Thursday said it had laid off 20 workers for leaking information to the media, as the social media giant faces pressure over the recent political shift of its boss Mark Zuckerberg towards US President Donald Trump.
“We tell employees when they join the company, and we offer periodic reminders, that it is against our policies to leak internal information, no matter the intent,” a Meta spokesperson said, confirming a story first reported in The Verge.
“We recently conducted an investigation that resulted in roughly 20 employees being terminated for sharing confidential information outside the company, and we expect there will be more,” the company added.
“We take this seriously, and will continue to take action when we identify leaks.”
The round of firings came following a recent series of reports based on Zuckerberg’s meetings with employees.
In one meeting, first reported by The Verge, Zuckerberg told employees he would no longer be forthcoming with information because “we try to be really open and then everything I say leaks. It sucks.”
He also warned them to “buckle up” for the coming year and said that Meta would be a productive partner with the White House.
Tech leaders have broadly fallen in line around Trump since he won the election in November, with Zuckerberg making a particular turn towards the Republican since his return to office.
Zuckerberg has multiplied his advances towards Trump, who last summer threatened the tech tycoon with life imprisonment after Meta excluded the president from Facebook in January 2021 for encouraging the assault on the Capitol.
The CEO and founder has dined with the Republican on several occasions, donated to the president’s inauguration fund, eased up on content moderation, and ended Facebook’s US fact-checking program in an effort to draw closer to the new Republican leadership in Washington.
His longtime political affairs boss was also replaced by a prominent Republican, and he named Trump ally Dana White to his board after the US election.
The measures align with the conservative views of the president and his allies, as well as masculinist entertainers and personalities like Elon Musk.
On the Joe Rogan podcast, Zuckerberg complained that “a lot of the corporate world is pretty culturally neutered” and that embracing masculine energy “is good.”