Meta's AI integration into apps like Instagram and Facebook feels a bit useless right now — why would you have to navigate through a Meta AI interface desperately trying to tell you the top five vegetarian protein sources when all you want to do is find your friends' Instagrams? But with the release of Meta's new Llama 3.1 405B model, a feature that could actually become pretty popular is on the way.
In Messages with Meta AI, you'll be able to ask the AI to create an avatar of you, be it an astronaut, a superhero, or whatever you want to be. The feature is called “Imagine Me” because that's the text you use to tell the AI to create these images.
This functionality might sound similar to apps like Lensa AI with Stable Diffusion that made waves a few years ago, and it certainly did: At the height of its popularity, Lensa AI was downloaded nearly 13 million times in 11 days, and other generative AI apps were climbing the iOS App Store charts.
Unlike those popular avatar apps, Meta isn't charging for the feature, so expect to see a lot of AI-generated selfies soon. But remember: what's free can be the product.