Meta

basicwidespread

The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which develops its own AI models (Llama) and integrates its Meta AI assistant into its applications.

In plain terms

Meta is the company formerly known as Facebook. It owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads, meaning billions of people use one of its products daily.

In the AI race, it is a special player because it does not need to acquire new customers: it brings artificial intelligence where people already are. It is like when the corner store you visit every day suddenly opens a pharmacy and a post office behind the counter.

Another distinguishing feature is that it made most of its Llama models freely downloadable, so other companies and researchers can build on them. Most major competitors (such as OpenAI or Anthropic) keep their top models closed: these are available only through the company's own service. In 2026, however, Meta also released its new flagship model, Muse Spark, as a closed model.

Meta's main revenue source remains advertising. For them, AI is primarily used to target ads more precisely, keep you in the app longer, and sell new devices, such as smart glasses.

How it works

Meta trains its language and image models in its own research labs and massive data centers. In 2026 it already spends more than a hundred billion dollars a year on data centers and AI development.
Some models are released under the name Llama, allowing developers to run and modify them on their own machines or in the cloud.
The Meta AI assistant was initially built on Llama models; since 2026, the company's newer, closed model (Muse Spark) has powered it. Meta integrates it into the search and chat functions of WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook, and also released it as a standalone app.
In the background, AI filters your news feed content and automatically creates and targets ads for advertisers.
The company also develops agents that, beyond chatting, independently handle tasks, such as responding to customers on WhatsApp on behalf of a business.

An everyday example

You open WhatsApp, and a blue-purple circle appears in the search bar or among chats: this is Meta AI. You can ask it what to cook for dinner or request help drafting a message without leaving the app. What it can do exactly and in which languages varies by country; in the EU, some features appeared later or in a more limited form.

Who is affected

everyoneIf you use Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp, Meta AI shapes what you see even if you never write to it.

marketerMeta's advertising system increasingly relies on AI for everything from creating ad text and images to targeting, pushing manual campaign fine-tuning into the background. → Marketing

developerYou can build your own applications on Llama models and the PyTorch framework launched by Meta without tying yourself to a single provider. → Code

parent, student, teacherChildren encounter AI assistants in the chat and social apps they use every day, so it is worth knowing what the assistant sees and how it answers them. → Education & Family

A common misconception

MythMeta's AI models are fully open source and can be used by anyone for any purpose.

In realityLlama model weights are downloadable but under their own license, which includes restrictions, and the training data is not public. Meta does not release all its models openly.

Limits and risks

Meta AI can make mistakes and fabricate facts just like any other chatbot, so verify what it says on important matters.
The company may use public posts by adult users and conversations with AI to train models; in the EU, you can object to this, but you must take the initiative.
The built-in assistant cannot be completely turned off in most applications; you can at best choose not to use it.
Meta's business interest is your attention and advertising, so when designing AI features, your time and peace of mind are not necessarily the primary considerations.

Similar, but not the same

Facebook – Facebook is now just one product of Meta; Meta is the name of the entire corporate group.
Meta AI – Meta AI is the company's chat assistant, while Meta itself is the corporation that builds this and many other products.
Metaverzum – The metaverse is a concept about virtual worlds from which the company took its name, but it is not identical to the company itself.

Related concepts

Broader

Tech giants, AI development companies

Narrower

Llama, Meta AI

On the edge

OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Microsoft, open-weight model

A brief history

The company was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues in 2004 under the name Facebook; it adopted the name Meta in 2021. Its AI research lab launched in 2013, released the first Llama model in 2023, and in 2025 set up a separate "superintelligence" division (Meta Superintelligence Labs). The division's first model, Muse Spark, was released in 2026 and can no longer be freely downloaded.

Where things stand

By the end of 2026, Meta is one of the largest AI investors. According to the company, its assistant is used by more than one billion people monthly through its social apps. However, in the race for the most powerful models, it is mostly mentioned behind OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. It has also become less committed to open releases: its latest flagship model was released as a closed model.

Status: 2026 November

In the news

Appears in 142 Agent Age stories; the curve shows weekly occurrence in the news magazine.

Big tech firms and green groups are drafting joint US data center guidelinesNov 6, 2026 · Ipar
Child safety lawsuits against Snap, Meta and Google mount; West Virginia also sues SnapNov 5, 2026 · Education & Family
Apple, Microsoft and Meta tighten internal AI usage limitsNov 5, 2026 · Code
Visa test: AI shopping agents failed 42.8% of runsNov 5, 2026 · Money
Meta, Google and TikTok sue California over law protecting children from addictive algorithmsNov 5, 2026 · Jog
Meta buys AI startup to push to the front of the coding marketNov 4, 2026 · Agent Age
Meta acquires AI coding startup ConductorNov 4, 2026 · Code
Election losses could halt up to 30% of large US AI data center projects, analysis saysNov 4, 2026 · Ipar

Also known as

Meta · Meta Platforms · Meta Platforms, Inc. · Facebook (former name) · Meta AI · Meta Superintelligence Labs · Facebook's parent company · FAIR

Sources

This entry was machine-edited and has undergone machine expert review; the “In the news” section updates automatically from Agent Age stories.