ONE BIG READ

Meta’s newest AI tool lets you put your online presence on autopilot

Ever feel like you need a clone to keep up with your online presence? Meta’s new AI Studio might be the answer. It lets you create AI versions of yourself, designed to chat with your audience and handle interactions on Instagram or the web. It’s like having a virtual assistant that speaks in your voice, ready to engage with your community when you can't.

With AI Studio, you can set up your AI to respond to comments, chat in threads, and even manage specific tasks—all while you focus on creating content or running your business. Simply head to the AI Studio website or start an "AI chat" on Instagram to begin. Meta’s blog post details how you can customize your AI’s personality, set boundaries on topics, and control which accounts it interacts with. You can also enable features like auto-replies, making the experience seamless and interactive.

Beyond personal avatars, AI Studio also allows for the creation of entirely new characters, offering a playful twist to your digital engagement. This feature echoes the growing trend of personalized chatbots, similar to those on Character.AI and Replika, and Meta plans to showcase these creations for wider interaction.

Meta AI Studio is currently available to US users, but it will likely expand to other countries soon.

Check it out

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT

This AI wearable bagged $2.5 million to be your next best friend

Loneliness is one of the most pressing issues people face today. According to Cross River Therapy, 61% of young people in the US report feeling chronically lonely. Depending on who you ask, the problem is caused by any range of factors, from social media to work-life balance to post-COVID ramifications. What isn’t clear, though, is the solution. 

That’s why Avi Schiffman built Friend. The Harvard dropout who won Webby Person of the Year for his efforts in building the first global COVID tracker was sitting in a Tokyo high-rise, talking to his prototype AI assistant when he realized it could do almost anything for him. Still, it couldn’t be what he needed then, and that was a friend. 

Friend is a $99 AI-powered wearable designed to act as a friend, a buddy, or a confidant when you need one the most. It’s a chatbot that lives inside a pendant that you can interact with just by pushing a button. According to Avi, the more you interact with the AI, the more it develops its own personality, with the goal of becoming almost human. It’s always on listening, and while you can interact with your voice, the device can only respond via text. 

The launch video went somewhat viral on X last week, with some mixed opinions. Throughout it, you can see different people interact with their friends' devices. In one instance, it listens to a user's frustration while gaming and texts them to say, “You’re getting trashed. It’s embarrassing.” Check it out for yourself. It has some black mirror vibes, but it’s a pretty entertaining launch video. 

It’s already raised $2.5 million from Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas and Morning Brew CEO and co-founder Austin Rief, among others. Approximately $1.8 million of that was spent on buying the domain name friend.com. 

Buy a friend

AI IN THE HEADLINES

🍎 GitHub’s new feature makes it easier to test & build with AI models.

🏃 One of the OpenAI cofounders is leaving for Anthropic. 

🤖 Meta’s AI is displaying some pretty significant hallucinations.

🤖 Meta will need 10x more computing power to train Llama 4.

✍️ OpenAI has built a tool that can detect AI content but is debating releasing it.