Mark Zuckerberg tees up AI chatbots at Meta Connect

Meta spent the last two years burning more than $20 billion on the metaverse, only to get roasted over avatars that finally grew legs. Mark Zuckerberg just shifted the narrative, and he is bringing Snoop Dogg along for the ride.

At the Meta Connect developer conference in Menlo Park, Zuckerberg unveiled the Quest 3 headset, next-gen smart glasses, and a massive push into generative AI across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.

Celebrity avatars and talking sunglasses

Meta introduced more than a dozen AI personas modeled after prominent celebrities, including Tom Brady, Snoop Dogg, MrBeast, Kendall Jenner, and Charli D'Amelio.

Each character comes with distinct interests and mannerisms. There are also functional assistants, like a sous chef named Max and an editor named Lily.

For now, the celebrity bots are text-only in a U.S. beta, with voice coming early next year. They can access real-time web search through a partnership with Microsoft Bing and generate photos and stickers using Meta's new Emu image model.

On the hardware side, the Quest 3 arrives on October 10 for $499, packing a thinner profile and Qualcomm's next-gen silicon for mixed reality.

Meanwhile, the new Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses land October 17 for $299. They let you take photos, listen to music, livestream straight to Instagram, and talk directly to the Meta AI assistant. As Zuckerberg put it, glasses are the ideal form factor for AI to see what you see and hear what you hear.

Why it matters

Meta cut more than 20,000 jobs during its "year of efficiency" while battling TikTok for user attention. Celebrity chatbots might sound goofy, but keeping people entertained inside WhatsApp and Instagram is Meta's bread and butter.

We think pairing multimodal AI with $299 Ray-Ban frames is far smarter than forcing everyday consumers into bulky VR headsets. It turns AI into a wearable companion that shares your physical context without demanding an entirely new interface.

For tech rivals, Meta's strategy creates real pressure. Instead of selling subscriptions to a standalone web chatbot, Meta is embedding AI into the apps billions already open every day, powered by Bing and its open-source foundation models.