Meta Platforms (META) has unveiled a new standalone artificial intelligence (A.I.) app with many of the same functions as ChatGPT.
Meta’s new A.I. app puts the company in direct competition with privately held OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which is widely considered a leader in artificial intelligence chatbots.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that the company’s goal is to be a global leader in A.I. technologies.
To that end, Meta has said that it plans to spend up to $65 billion U.S. on A.I. and related technologies, including data centres, in 2025.
Meta’s new A.I. app follows similar efforts by Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) and Elon Musk’s private start-up company xAI.
Each of those companies released individual apps for their digital assistants known as Gemini at Alphabet and Grok at xAI.
ChatGPT can write text, produce images, and solve complex equations for users, among many other tasks.
Meta’s online A.I. platform currently has 700 million monthly active users, according to the company. That’s up from 600 million users at the end of 2024.
The technology giant has pivoted to largely focus on artificial intelligence over the past two years as interest and demand grows worldwide.
Meta Platforms’ stock has declined 8% this year to trade at $554.44 U.S. per share.