Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) assistant will soon be able to support conversations in Arabic language.
The AI will become available in selected Arab countries over the next few weeks.
They are Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the UAE.
Launched last year, Meta AI is an intelligent assistant that is capable of complex reasoning, following instructions, visualising ideas, and solving nuanced problems.
As a result of this, Arabic language products are receiving increasing priority from global AI developers.
This is as governments, businesses and consumers across the Arab world prove they are willing and able to use the latest Generative AI tools.
With a population of nearly half a billion people, the Arab world is an important consumer market for many global technology firms, whilst the purchasing power and enthusiasm for AI of the oil-rich GCC states has become a magnet for global AI developers and solution providers.
As Arab countries invest in developing sovereign AI to provide local AI services in standard and colloquial Arabic, global AI service providers risk being displaced if they fall behind with their own Arabic capabilities.
Here are the key details of Meta AI’s announcement:
Meta is currently rolling out its Meta AI intelligent assistant to 21 new country markets globally, including 10 Arab countries.
Meta launched it’s Meta AI assistant in September 2023 in answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s intelligent assistant. Among other data source, Meta used public Facebook and Instagram posts to train Meta AI.
Meta AI will soon have Arabic language support, although no information has been released on what form of Arabic will be supported and whether there will be any support for local Arabic dialects.
Meta AI began providing support for Tagalog this week, while Arabic, Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese will soon be supported, although no time-frame has been announced by Meta.
During the coming weeks, Meta AI will be made available in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, and the UAE.
The lastest version of Meta AI is built on Meta’s Llama 3 large language model and has almost 500 million monthly active users, including users in Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This week, Meta AI was made available in Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Philippines and the United Kingdom.
