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Meta has finally concluded its Connect 2023 event, where the Mark Zuckerberg-led company launched new hardware, including the new Quest 3 VR headset, RayBan smart glasses, and Meta AI.

The company doubled down on its generative AI ambitions with new plans announced to integrate artificial intelligence by adding the Meta AI in some of its most popular platforms, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

The Facebook parent company is fast expanding to compete better in the fast-heating AI race, which also has big-name rivals like Google, OpenAI, and Amazon.

Here’s everything Meta announced during its keynote:

Meta AI Chatbot

Meta finally has a chatbot of its own called Meta AI. The new chatbot would be available across Meta apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and in the future, it will also come to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Quest 3.

Meta notes that the chatbot is powered by a custom model that is based on Llama 2, its latest large language model which it announced earlier this year, and Meta has also partnered with Bing to offer a tool for image generation as well as real-time information access.

To invoke this new assistant, users will need to type – ‘@MetaAI /imagine,’ followed by a descriptive text prompt like “create a button badge with a hiker and redwood trees,” and it will create a digital merit badge in the chat with your friends.

New AI Characters

“Along with Meta AI, there are 28 more AIs that you can message on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram,” Meta said. The company notes that users should see these characters as unique individuals with distinct personalities and backstories.

They will even have profiles made for them on Instagram and Facebook. Meta will be rolling out these today as beta in the US. In the future, users can expect AI characters of popular celebrities like Bear Grylls, Chloe Kim, and Josh Richards as well.

Quest 3 Mixed Reality Headset

Meta also launched the third generation of its Quest headset—the Meta Quest 3. The device has been launched at a price of $499.99 in the US for the 128GB model and goes up to $649.99 for the 512GB variant. It is powered by the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2, which, as per Meta, allows for double the GPU processing power compared to Meta Quest 2.

“This brings enough power to support heavy applications like fast-action gaming, seamless full-color, high-resolution passthrough, and so much more,” Meta notes.

Meta is calling it a ‘mixed reality’ headset, and this means it comes with 2 RGB cameras with 18 PPD. It delivers “10X the resolution of Quest 2 and 2X the resolution of Quest Pro in passthrough. Delivers full-color, high-fidelity views of your surroundings while you see virtual objects appear in your physical space.” Further, it is also said to offer accurate depth and room projection to allow you freedom to move around and interact with virtual elements in the space around you.

The device is currently up for pre-order and will be available on October 10.

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

Alongside the Quest 3, Meta also announced that it is partnered with Ray-Ban to make the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses possible.

These glasses come with Meta’s new AI Assistant, and a 12MP camera to capture images and videos and even live stream on Facebook and Instagram. And users may also make and take calls hands-free and listen to music using these glasses.

The glasses come in two styles: Wayfarer and Headliner. They will be available for a starting price of $299; available in 15 countries including United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe.

Roblox Available For Meta Quest

As announced earlier, Roblox has finally made its way to the Meta Quest platform. At the Connect 2023 event, Mark Zuckerberg said, “Roblox is launching today,” and “I’m really excited for this one. After taking a long time to optimize it for VR, it’s going to be a big deal.”

Users can directly download the game from the Meta Quest store, and it will be compatible with Quest 2, Quest Pro, and the new Quest 3 Mixed reality headset.