Instagram creators can now create AI doppelgangers to chat with their followers

The next time you post a creator on Instagram, you might get a response from their AI. Meta is starting to roll out its AI Studio, a set of tools that will allow Instagram creators to create an AI persona that can answer questions and chat with their followers and followers on their behalf.

The company first introduced AI Studio at its Connect event last fall but recently began testing AIs made by creators with a handful of Instagrammers. Now, Meta is making the tools available to many US-based creators and giving all its other users the chance to test out special AI “characters”.

According to Meta, the new AI creators are designed to address a long-standing problem for Instagram users with a large following: it is almost impossible for the most popular users of the service to keep up with the flood of messages they receive every day. Now, however, they will be able to create AI that acts as “extensions of themselves,” said Connor Hayes, VP of Product for AI Studio at Meta.

“These creators can use comments they've made, captions they've made, scripts for Reels they've posted, and any custom commands or links they want to provide … so the AI ​​can respond to them,” Hayes told Engadget.

Mark Zuckerberg has suggested that he has big ambitions for such chatbots. In a recent interview no Bloomberg he said he expects there will eventually be “hundreds of millions” of creator-made AIs in Meta apps. However, it is not clear that Instagram users will be so interested in engaging with AI versions of their favorite creators. Meta has previously tested AI chatbots that impersonate celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Kendall Jenner, but those “impersonators” proved to be too weak.

“One of the things that ended up confusing people was, 'Am I talking to a celebrity who is putting together this AI, or am I talking to an AI and they're playing this character,'” Meta's Hayes said of these celebrity-named chatbots. “We think going to this case where public officials can express themselves, or AI can augment them, will be very clear.”

AI Studio isn't just for creators, though. Meta will also allow any user to create custom AI “characters” that can discuss specific topics, create memes or give advice. As creator-oriented actors, these chatbots will be powered by the new Meta model of Llama 3.1. Users can share their chatbot creations and track how many people are using it, although they won't be able to view other users' interactions with them.

The new chatbots are the latest way Meta has pushed its users to spend more time with its AI as it embeds Meta AI in more areas of its apps. But Meta AI has sometimes struggled to convey accurate information. In a blog post, Meta notes that it has “policies and safeguards in place to keep people safe and help ensure that AIs are used responsibly.”

Screenshots provided by the company show that conversations with the new AI characters will also have the usual disclaimer: “Some AI-generated messages may be inaccurate or inappropriate.”