WhatsApp testing Meta AI chatbot in India, other markets

New Delhi: WhatsApp has said that it is testing its large language model-powered chatbot Meta AI, with users in India and some other markets, in an effort to tap the massive user base to up its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings.

The tech giant recently started testing the AI chatbot in select markets, including the US.

"Our generative AI-powered experiences are under development in varying phases, and we’re testing a range of them publicly in a limited capacity," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

With over 500 million WhatsApp users, India is the instant messaging service’s largest market.

The tech giant launched Meta AI, a general-purpose chatbot that can generate photorealistic images from text prompts and answer user queries within chats in September last year.

In addition, the company confirmed earlier this week that it will launch Llama 3, its next open-source large language model, in the coming month.

Meanwhile, Meta has said it will activate an India-specific Elections Operations Centre, bringing together experts to identify potential threats and put specific mitigations in place across its apps (Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram), while aiming to curb AI-generated fake or manipulated content.